Higher oil prices are invariably good news for oil-dependent economies. The latest price rally is particularly good news for the world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, whose budget deficit is this year seen to shrink to 5.6 percent from 9.3 percent last year, BMI Research said in a new report. The 5.6-percent figure is a downward revision from BMI’s earlier projection that stood at 6.1 percent, and the market research firm now expects the Saudi budget to return to balance by 2024, probably on the premise that oil prices will continue to rise and so will production—a combination that is not the most natural one. Unnatural it may be, but this is precisely the situation at the moment: Saudi Arabia is pumping more after in June the OPEC+ club decided to put an end to the production cuts aimed at eliminating a global oil inventory overhang. It has also […]