Posted on 09/25/2016 2:32:40 PM PDT by Lorianne
Lower revenue hurts economy, prompting government to withdraw some benefits; as cost of living rises, consumers cut back on spending ___ With a slowing economy and shrinking foreign reserves, the kingdom is coming under pressure to take steps that support the price of oil, as it did this month with an accord it struck with Russia.
... a sharp drop in the price of oil, Saudi Arabias main revenue source, has forced the government to withdraw some benefits this yearraising the cost of living in the kingdom and hurting its middle class, a part of society long insulated from such problems. Saudi Arabia heads into next weeks meeting of major oil producers in a tight spot. With a slowing economy and shrinking foreign reserves, the kingdom is coming under pressure to take steps that support the price of oil, as it did this month with an accord it struck with Russia. The sharp price drop is mainly because of a glut in the market, in part caused by Saudi Arabia itself. The worlds top oil producer continues to pump crude at record levels to defend its market share.
One option to lift prices that could work, some analysts say, is to freeze output at a certain level and exempt Iran from such a deal, given that its push to increase production to pre-sanction levels appears to have stalled in recent months. Saudi Arabia has previously refused to sign any deal that exempts arch-rival Iran. As its people start feeling the pain, that could change. The kingdom is grappling with major job losses among its construction workersmany from poorer countriesas some previously state-backed construction companies suffer from drying up government funding. Those spending cuts are now hitting the Saudi working middle class.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
The needle on my give a care meter did not even move on their plight.
They’re not eating sand yet, so it’s not that serious yet.
I have someone at work who has dividends from drilling in ND...he wants the price of gas to go up so he’ll get more money...he says that when oil is up, the economy does better and I asked him WHO’S ECONOMY?
Watch “Saudi Arabia Uncovered” on Netflix.
I dozed off trying to read it.
Drill more, drill here, drill now!
Dearest camel jockies and terrorists: Eat sand.
Is this for real? or is 0bama manipulating the oil prices through his muslim buddies to impact the election?
I recall someone having a dream about seven fat years and seven lean years...
Rather than engineering the country into a self sustaining breadbasket (say, soar powered desalination plants irrigating vast farms), they squandered their incredible riches on useless luxuries.
IOW, this a Saudi lobby propaganda puff piece and nothing more.
If Hillary wins they'll be bringing in cash hand over fist again in no time.
JMHo
Yeah Salman! Raise those prices so we can get a warm weather head start on firing up our shale fields, before Trump starts pulling all of your sycophant Obama’s orders.
If your positive exploitable revenue sources are oil and sand, and you have a substantial negative export source of terror, chances are things aren’t going to be very fun in the future.
Good, the terrorists will only be armed with knives instead of airplanes.
Hopefully we are seeing the punchline to God’s joke of why he put so much oil under the feet of the Saudis.
That statement right there makes the whole article a lie. You have to be a member of the royal clan, or one of it's three allied clans to be in their 'middle' class
Unless sitting at a desk, telling the foreign workers how they're doing it wrong, and stealing their money is now considered "work".
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i love it
I was thinking the same thing.
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