Exercise 4 (Inspired by Haseeb Mohammad)

Here are two tables from the 2020 budget statement of the government of Saudi Arabia. First, we have information about budget deficit: in the past three years, revenues are smaller than expenditures. (This will be the main focus of this exercise.) Second, we have data about how the budget is spent.

Your task is to figure out a way (or many ways) to close the budget. That is, imagine you are in 2018: you need to find 174,000,000,000 SAR to cover all the expenses. What do you do?

Now, to make it actually interesting and intellectually challenging, here are two constraints:

1. You are not allowed to increase taxes or impose new taxes.

2. You are not allowed to sell shares of Aramco.

As always, be as clear and as specific as possible. Be creative, but rigorous.