FALLING SHORT

Saudi Arabia posts its largest budget deficit since 2018

Despite the kingdom attempting to rein in some of its splashier investments like LIV Golf, first-quarter expenditures rose about 20% to $103 billion

Maya Anwar/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Damac Towers, center, and skyscrapers on the city skyline in Riyadh

Saudi Arabia has posted its biggest quarterly budget deficit since 2018 in a sign of the challenges faced by the Middle East’s largest economy in the wake of the Iran war.

The budget shortfall of 125.7 billion...