Prince Abdulrahman bin Mohammed bin Ayyaf, Secretary General of the Cabinet, reads the Royal Decree on the budget. Then, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques signed the Royal Decree on the budget. In a statement to Saudi Press Agency (SPA) following the session, Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Awwad bin Saleh Al-Awwad said that Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan, Minister of Finance, provided a brief presentation on the State's General Budget in which he highlighted the financial results of the current fiscal year 1438/1439H and highlighted the key features of the State's General Budget for the new fiscal year 1439/1440H. "It is expected that the real gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2018 is to reach about %2.7. A number of measures will be implemented aiming to stimulate the performance of the economy during the next year, including the implementation of packages to stimulate investment and continue to pay any financial commitments to the private sector within sixty days, as a maximum, since all relevant procedures were taken in addition to allocation of larger amounts rather than former figures for a number of sectors, including housing, education and health. The minister of finance added that there are efforts to encourage and facilitate investment procedures in the Kingdom, improve the level of government services, and implement projects in the construction, tourism, cultural and entertainment sectors, as well as privatization programs which is expected to provide new opportunities for growth of private investment and create more jobs and to develop a framework and regulation for a partnership between the public and private sectors. Al-Jadaan disclosed that the government will continue to implement initiatives to reduce negative impacts of reforms on eligible citizens, including implementation of the Citizen Account Program which is one of the important initiatives to help those eligible for the support in order to address the additional costs that may result from correcting levels of energy prices and value added tax (VAT) through redirecting a support to the most eligible categories. The budget of the Citizen Account is expected to be SR32 billion in 2018. --More 18:38 LOCAL TIME 15:38 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w568262