Saudi Arabia may cancel US$20b of projects

Dubai

SAUDI Arabia is intensifying efforts to shrink the highest budget deficit among the world's biggest 20 economies, aiming to cancel more than US$20 billion of projects and slash ministry budgets by a quarter, people familiar with the matter said.

The government is reviewing thousands of projects valued at about 260 billion riyals (S$93 billion) and may cancel a third of them, three people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions are private.