SAUDI ARABIA has projected a balanced budget of $228 billion for 2014. The budget – the sixth since the global financial crisis – continues the expansionary path the kingdom has taken since then, with substantial additional outlays for education, health and infrastructure, despite the decline in oil revenue.

Saudi Arabia has slowed the pace of planned spending increases in its 2014 budget. Targeted spending will increase 4.3 per cent, compared with a rise of almost 20 per cent in the 2013 budget, the Finance Ministry said.

King Abdullah has allocated a record amount of money to build roads, industrial centres and airports as he seeks to reduce the country’s oil dependency.

The new budget has made allocations worth SR3 billion ($799 million) for 465 new school buildings in addition to 1,544 school buildings currently under construction and 494 schools that have been completed in 2013.

For higher education, the bud-get includes rehabilitation of girls colleges in universities, opening of eight new colleges, and completing the construction of campuses for the new universities.

The budget covers new projects for new primary healthcare centres throughout the kingdom, 11 new hospitals, two medical complexes, 11 medical centres, and 10 comprehensive clinics. There are more than 132 hospitals under construction with a capacity of 33,750 beds and five medical cities with a capacity of 6,200 beds around the kingdom. In 2013, 16 new hospitals were completed with a capacity of more than 3,700 beds.

The total expenditure for municipality services, which includes new projects for inter-city roads, bridges, and drainage and control systems and environment-related projects, amounts to around SR39 billion ($10.39 billion), an increase of nine per cent over the 2013 budget.

Infrastructure and transport expenditure amounts to SR66.6 billion ($17.75 billion), an increase of 2.5 per cent over 2013. It includes new projects worth SR40.2 billion ($10.71 billion) for roads totalling 3,500 km, upgrading and modernising existing ports and expanding and upgrading regional and airports, and railroads.