Saudi posts $59.7bn budget surplus: state TV

RIYADH: OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia on Monday posted a budget surplus of 224 billion riyals ($59.7 billion) for 2011, state television reported.

The world's largest crude oil exporter had expected a deficit of 40 billion riyals ($10.7 billion), or 7.4 percent, with planned expenditure of 580 billion riyals ($154.7 billion).

Revenues surged to 1.110 trillion riyals ($296 billion), the finance ministry said in a statement aired by Al-Ekhbariyah television.

For 2012, the desert kingdom that sits on the world's largest proven oil reserves expected a small surplus of 12 billion riyals ($3.2 billion), with revenues expected to hit 702 billion riyals ($187.2 billion), while expenditure would surge to 690 billion riyals ($184 billion).