…from Press TV, Tehran
[ Editor’s Note: The Saudis are bleeding red ink because it is a parasitic country where everyone gives as little as possible for as much as they can take. A large percentage of the work force couldn’t get a job in the west do to their poor work ethic.
We learned all about this during the first financial crunch where layoffs began and the stories came out about people showing up at their work for at least an hour a day so they would not be fired for never coming in. That was cute.
This does not include your well educated class, and many of them live and even work overseas to enjoy working with colleagues who do not view work as a slave activity.
ARAMCO has been a two edged sword for the country, providing great wealth but also undermining the country via its being a giant tit, where everyone wants to live like heirs and heiresses.
Crown Prince Salman’s dream of diversifying the economy is just that. Sure, he will be able to hire companies to go there and build operations and even employ some Saudis to pretend they are running the show.
The only thing positive that Salman ever did was put the screws on the elite looting class, the kind where people had stashed away a billion bucks, but wanted to flaunt it, the
mine is bigger than yours thing, which was their undoing in the end… Jim W. Dean ]
Jim's Editor’s Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal
Jim's work includes research, field trips, Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more. Thanks for helping. Click to donate >>
– First published … December 09, 2019 –
Saudi Arabia says its budget deficit for the coming year will increase as the Arab kingdom, the world’s top oil exporter, faces falling oil prices and production reductions.
In an official statement on Monday, the state-run television said Saudi Arabia predicted a budget deficit of $50 billion next year, for the seventh year in a row, up $15 billion on this year.
The statement came shortly after a cabinet meeting, chaired by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, announced that Riyadh would also cut spending for 2020 in a rare belt-tightening measure.
The meeting also predicted spending for next year to be $272 billion, lower by 7.8 percent on this year’s estimates while revenues were predicted to be $222 billion, also down by 14.6 percent.
The statement on Monday echoed what Riyadh announced in early November, when Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said the budget deficit was expected to widen to $49.8 billion in 2020 from a predicted 35 billion in the closing year as lower oil prices hit revenues.
This means that the Arab kingdom’s budget deficit next year will increase to 6.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) from a predicted 4.7 percent of GDP this year.
Since 2014, when oil prices crashed, Riyadh has posted a budget deficit each year.
Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus. He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. He now writes and posts periodically for VT.
ATTENTION READERS
We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully InformedIn fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.
About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
As far as I know, in Saudi Arabia the budget surplus is calculated from the cost of oil of at least $ 60 per barrel. In Russia, we pledged $ 40 per barrel. Everything that goes beyond this cost – we put aside the country’s welfare fund. A kind of piggy bank of the country. More recently, Saudi Arabia reduced its oil production by 500,000 barrels and let Russia go forward. Saudis got used to live luxuriously.
Comments are closed.