Saudi Arabia’s growth this year will be “significantly higher” than the IMF’s new forecast, according to the Minister of Finance, Mohammed Al-Jadaan. Economic expansion will be “north of 1%,” Al-Jadaan said on Tuesday. The IMF had lowered its forecast to 0.4% from 2.0% on Monday, citing the impact of lower oil production agreed by members of the OPEC. “We have various information that they may not have, so that could explain the difference,” Al-Jadaan said, referring to growth-boosting measures including investments in renewable energy and a stimulus package in support of the private sector. The IMF’s Saudi Arabia Mission Chief, Tim Callen, said that Saudi Arabia’s non-oil sector is expected to see a “modest” 2% recovery this year, but the kingdom needs more growth to be able to create jobs. Government spending cuts are likely to ease in 2017, boosting growth, while the budget deficit is expected to narrow to less than 10% of GDP, he said. This is against a government forecast of 7.7% of GDP, down from 11.5% in 2016. The government gave two spending figures for last year; SAR825bn and SAR930bn including the late payments for previous years, the IMF is using the latter figure, Callen said. (Bloomberg)