RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA — Daily News’ SHK who has and admits to confident ties with Saudi Arabia ‘s ruling family brings an interesting take on the country’s struggle this morning.
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REPORTING BY: SHK
Saudi Arabia ‘s once glamorous and powerful economy, is, largely failing. After oil spent the last four months dropping significantly in prices, Saudi Arabia, has now reportedly found itself in the midst of austerity cuts. Such cuts, undermine a country whereas “handouts” and tax breaks have largely bought Saudi’s ruling family complete civil obedience.
Now, the country is in straits. According to the ruling family, Saudi Arabia “in the near future will be weaned off of its dependence on oil sales” to bring back a booming economy that could survive without such sales (they’ve fallen some 70% in the last four or so months). The sudden fall to austerity, could partly, be blamed on neighboring Gulf Monarchies — why this spells doom for Saudi Arabia is pretty obvious.
Saudi Arabia, perhaps, one of the world’s (and the Middle East’s) most conservative country’s isn’t quite accustomed to change. In a world where civil obedience is almost “life”, the government must now figure out a way to maintain its control over its society — without causing to much of a financial disturbance by cutting back on so many dependent welfare like programs.
These days, barrels of oil are less than $30 a barrel. That’s where the problem begins and ends for Saudi Arabia, a country, that has for decades depended on oil sales and the like to build an astonishing reserve of revenue believed to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Government sources note that last year’s deficit was at $98 billion after the economy began to fall. Furthermore, Saudi citizens have never been charged “taxes” of any kind, but, if this interview in the Economist anything to go by — then — that could soon change.
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