Strict, painful measures eyed as Riyadh ponders debt

RIYADH, May 3, (KUNA): Ramifications of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on Saudi Arabia’s economic and financial conditions would appear in the second and third quarters, the Kingdom’s Finance Minister said, and added the government would borrow to address the deficit.

Oil and non-oil revenues have fallen sharply and the impacts will most likely be in the forthcoming quarters, and the Saudi government is weighting a host of options to address the pandemic, Mohammad Al-Jadaan said in an interview with Al-Arabiya news channel. Al-Jadaan, who cited preventive measures against the pandemic, said the Saudi government has adopted a set of measures to support the economy.

“The main objective of these measures is to protect jobs of citizens in the private sector, maintaining basic services as well as maintaining financial resources for the health sector,” he said.

Saudi Arabia, added Al-Jadaan, cut spending because of the sharp decline in revenues. The cuts, he said, was expected to continue this year and in 2021.

“The Kingdom should be ready economically to tackle this pandemic alongside its severe and very painful impacts on the people and private sector,” said the minister. He said the government planned to borrow 120 billion Riyals ($32 billion) but “now we will borrow additional 100 billion riyals ($26.666 billion), even that is not enough too.”

Saudi Arabia, Al-Jadaan said, “should take very strict measures and it might be painful but important to guarantee sustainability of the financial condition,” citing plummeting reveues.

Economists and health experts cannot anticipate how long this pandemic will last, he said. “We need to be ready for a prolonged crisis and we have the financial means to private basic services for

the citizens.”

Al-Jadaan said it was important to have a close eye on the increase of debt which would affect companies and citizens’ loans.

Also:

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia announced recording seven new deaths from the novel coronavirus in addition to 1,362 newly registered infection cases.

Spokesperson of the Saudi Ministry of Health Dr Mohammad Alabdulali said in his daily briefing about the contagion that tally of the deaths amounted to 176 and contaminated persons to 25,459.

Number of recovery cases climbed to 3,765 after recording recuperation of 210 patients, he said, adding that 139 critical cases remained in intensive care.

Saudi Arabia decided to lift the additional precautionary measures previously announced in the Al-Atheer district and to isolate the second industrial city of

Dammam starting of Sunday. The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted an official source at the Ministry of Interior as saying that the residents of the district are still allowed to go out to meet their needs from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm local time, as well as the continuation of the work of the excluded activities and the implementation of the precautionary health preventive measures previously announced.

It noted the authorities applied additional health precautionary measures by isolating the second industrial city of Dammam and preventing entry into or exit from, as of Sunday, until further notice with the exception of freight and goods transport.