Saudi Arabia: Selected Issues

IMF Staff Country Reports, September 9, 2019

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Diversification is needed to create jobs for Saudis and to mitigate the impact of uncertainty in oil markets.
Although the business climate should be improved, and remaining infrastructure gaps addressed, reforms need to go beyond these areas.
Diversification that creates jobs for nationals could be held back by the effects of relatively high wages and their impact on cost competitiveness.
High government wages and employment have an adverse impact on competitiveness and require creative solutions.
Industrial policy could help overcome incentives that encourage companies to focus on the nontradable sector, but such policy should be handled carefully and informed by lessons from other countries’ experiences.
Export orientation and competition are crucial mechanisms to ensure discipline in the economy.
Strengthening human capital to raise productivity and provide workers with the skills needed in the private sector will be essential to success.

Implement measures to improve the business climate and address remaining infrastructure gaps.
Develop creative approaches to mitigate the competitiveness effects of relatively high wages and large public employment.
Use industrial policy selectively to encourage tradable-sector activity while applying lessons from other countries to avoid pitfalls.
Promote export orientation and competition as central mechanisms for disciplining firms and supporting diversification.
Strengthen human capital policies to raise productivity and align workforce skills with private-sector needs.

Subject: Commodities, Excises, Exports, International trade, Oil, Revenue administration, Tax incentives, Taxes, Value-added tax
Keywords: CR, excise tax, Excises, Exports, GCC VAT agreement, Global, IMF staff calculation, ISCR, labor market, Oil, oil revenue, opportunity cost, revenue benefit, tax rate, tax revenue, Value-added tax, venture capital

International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept. "Saudi Arabia: Selected Issues", IMF Staff Country Reports 2019, 291 (2019).

Saudi Arabia: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report No. 19/291; June 21, 2019
- Saudi Arabia: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report No. 19/291; June 21, 2019 (Markdown version)
- Saudi Arabia: Selected Issues; IMF Country Report No. 19/291; June 21, 2019 (PDF)