Riyadh gets $1.5bn from Japanese export credit agency

• 12-year financing deal
• Credit line worth $1.5 billion
• To support water and energy

Saudi Arabia has secured long-term financing from the Japanese Export Credit Agency (Nexi) to support its water and energy sectors.​​

The National Debt Management Center (NDMC) and Nexi – both state-backed entities – signed a 12-year financing deal for a credit line worth $1.5 billion.

The financing will strengthen the commercial and investment relations between the two countries and projects launched under the Vision 2030 programme, NDMC said in a statement.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

This month the kingdom approved its 2026 borrowing plan, with projected funding increasing by almost 56 percent from 2025 to SAR217 billion ($58 billion).

This amount is slated to cover an anticipated budget deficit of SAR165 billion or 3.3 percent of gross domestic product, for 2026.

The finance ministry has stated that it will look at alternative government funding through project and infrastructure financing, as well as export credit agencies, this year and over the medium term.

NDMC has already secured $13 billion through a seven-year syndicated loan this year to fund power, water and public utilities projects.

In December, the Public Investment Fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said the fund plans to increase its investments in Japan to $27 billion by the end of 2030.

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• In numbers: Saudi Arabia’s economy

Japan is a major partner of Saudi Arabia, with 39 percent of Japan’s oil imports coming from the kingdom.

In November 2024 PIF signed memorandums of understanding worth up to $51 billion with five Japanese banks. 

Last year, the trillion-dollar sovereign fund signed financing agreements with UK Export Finance and France’s Bpifrance Assurance Export, totalling $6.8 billion and $10 billion, respectively.