Oil price slump turns Saudi surplus into huge deficit, IMF report shows

Fund tells all oil exporters to be braced for prolonged period of disruption as it predicts Gulf state's deficit will hit 21.6% of GDP this year

The full extent of the impact of slumping crude prices on Saudi Arabia's public finances has been highlighted by the International Monetary Fund in a new report telling oil exporters to be braced for a prolonged period of disruption to their budgets.

The fund's half-yearly fiscal monitor report shows that in the past three years a hefty budget surplus in Saudi Arabia has been turned into a deficit of more than 20% of GDP - double the shortfalls seen in the UK and the US during the worst of the global slump of 2008-09.