The first quarter budget performance report for the fiscal year 2018 shows significant growth in non-oil revenues and anticipated expenditure increases on an annual basis, Saudi Arabia’s Finance Ministry recently announced. 

Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan said: “This year, we are seeking to distribute government spending in a balanced manner throughout the fiscal year and reduce seasonal expenditure, in order to boost economic growth rates and maximize the benefits.”

He  has been finance minister since November 2016. Before this, Al-Jadaan served as chairman of the Capital Markets Authority, chairman of the board of directors of the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration and special adviser to the board of directors at Morgan Stanley Saudi Arabia. He was also a commercial lawyer and the co-founder of Al-Jadaan and Partners Law Firm in cooperation with Clifford Chance from 1995-2015.

Al-Jadaan attained a degree in Islamic economics from Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University and a degree in legal studies from the Institute of Public Administration in Riyadh.

He specialized in commercial law, finance and financial market transactions, and directed a team of lawyers in the provision of legal services and contracts in transactions and joint ventures in the sectors of energy, petrochemicals, mining, water desalination, privatization and partnership between the public and private sector, project finance and initial public offers on the stock markets.

Al-Jadaan is also the chairman of the Financial Sector Development Program committee, the chairman of the Fiscal Balance Program committee, the chairman of the Financial Stability Committee, the chairman of the board of the General Authority of Customs, and the chairman of the Saudi side of the subcommittee of the high-level Saudi-Chinese Joint Committee.