Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia has set a record state budget for next year as high oil prices allow it to spend heavily on welfare and infrastructure projects, helping it avoid the severe social unrest seen in other parts of the Arab world.

Mr Ibrahim Alassaf, Finance Minister presented the budget to King Abdullah said that the government plans to spend SAR 820 billion in 2013.

That amount is 19% higher than the SAR 690 billion that the world's largest oil exporter budgeted for 2012, although it is below the estimated SAR 853 billion that the government actually spent.

Saudi Arabia traditionally makes conservative projections for both spending and oil revenue, leaving room for actual expenditure and budget surpluses to come in much larger than initially forecast.

The report said that next year's budget plan envisages revenue of SAR 829 billion. That implies a small budget surplus of just SAR 9 billion, but if global oil prices stay above USD 100 a barrel, the actual 2013 surplus will be far higher.

The report added that while the 2012 budget originally envisaged revenues of 702 billion riyals, they actually amounted to an estimated 1.24 trillion riyals.