Saudi's Arab light oil price down in July

The average price of Saudi Arabian light crude oil stood at $61.3 per barrel in July, down from $66.7 in June but was still above the level at which the country's budget breaks even, central bank data showed.

The average price of Arab Light crude was $95 per barrel for all of 2008 when OPEC's largest oil exporter posted a budget surplus of 590 billion riyals ($157.3bn), and $67.60 in 2007, according to the data published on the website of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) on Wednesday.

The commodity's average price stood at $46.2 a barrel in March, said SAMA which has not disclosed the data for the months of April and May.

Arab Light crude accounts for 50-60 per cent of the kingdom's total oil exports, said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi.

Oil prices have fallen from a record $147 a barrel hit in July 2008 to around $71 on Wednesday after a global economic recession hit demand.

Saudi Arabia increased budgeted spending for 2009 and, with the fall in world oil prices, projected a 65bn riyal deficit, which would be its first since 2002.

The kingdom's 2009 budget was based on an average price of $37 for a barrel of Saudi oil and $43 for U.S. benchmark grade West Texas Intermediate, Sfakianakis said.