Fahd bin Abdul Aziz
Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz
Naef Bin Abdul Aziz
Salman Bin Abdul Aziz
Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz
High oil prices fill Saudi coffers, but deficit, AFP, December 6, 1997
ABU DHABI, Dec 6 (AFP) - High oil prices have filled Saudi Arabia's coffers with surplus funds for the second year running, but not enough to wipe out its budget deficit, bankers said here Saturday.
The price of Saudi Arabian crude, mostly Arabian light, has averaged around 18 dollars this year, nearly a dollar higher than official projections.
With exports of around 6.5 million barrels per day (bpd), the dominant global oil power is forecast to earn between 40 billion and 43 billion dollars in 1997. The figure does not include petrochemicals and other non-oil exports, which are forecast to range from four billion to six billion dollars. "This means the total income of Saudi Arabia could exceed 45 billion dollars compared with projected revenues of 43.7 billion dollars. This will leave billions in surplus," a Riyadh-based banker said.
But the extra funds will unlikely eliminate a forecast budget deficit of nearly 4.5 billion dollars, since part of the funds have been used to replenlish the country's international reserves. Those reserves have eroded over the past decade because of the Gulf war costs and weak crude prices. Some of the extra funds have also been allocated to repay arrears to local contractors and farmers although the sum is far lower this year than last year's payments of 22 billion Saudi riyals (5.86 billion dollars).
Weak crude prices over the past decade had created a persistent deficit in Riyadh's budget and balance of payments and sharply slowed down its economy. It received another severe blow after paying more than 50 billion dollars for the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi invasion forces in 1991. A Saudi banker said that the government is determined not to let the arrears, which surged after the Gulf War, continue to accumulate. It has paid the last instalment of a foreign debt of around 4.5 billion dollars borrowed to meet the cash crunch after the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis.
A surge in oil prices in 1996 due to strong seasonal demand and the absence of sanctions-hit Iraq from the market boosted Saudi Arabia's income by 22.3 percent to 179.1 billion riyals (47.7 billion dollars) from around 146.5 billion riyals (39 billion dollars) in 1995, official figures showed. Despite overshooting projected expenditure, the budget shortfall was trimmed to 3.7 percent of the gross domestic product in 1996 from 5.8 percent in 1995. It exceeded 30 percent in 1991 because of the war payments. Bankers said Riyadh was set to enjoy another good financial year in 1998 after it secured 760,000 bpd in extra quota from the 11-nation Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries during its meeting in Jakarta last week. "Even if oil prices dipped by one to two dollars next year because of higher production, the Kingdom's revenues will still be high," a banker said. "This will help it keep growth high by keeping spending high as was the case in the past two years. At the same time, a healthy financial situation will enable the government to plan better in its current reform programme.
Riyadh forecasts 4.8-billion-dollar budget deficit, AFP, December 29, 1997
- RIYADH, Dec 29 (AFP) - Saudi Arabia expects to run a budget deficit of 18 billion rials (4.8 billion dollars) in 1998, slightly higher than this year's, Information Minister Fuad ibn Abdel Salam Farsi said Monday.
- The government planned expenditure of 196 billion rials (52.2 billion dollars) and expected receipts of 178 billion rials (47.4 billion dollars), the minister told the official news agency SPA. The budget totals for the new financial year starting January 1 were announced at the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by King Fahd.
- The Saudi government expects this year's budget deficit to amount to 17 billion rials (4.5 billion dollars). Higher than expected oil prices have filled the government's coffers with extra funds in 1997 for the second year running, but not enough to wipe out its budget deficit, bankers say. Income is expected to rise further in 1998 following the decision of the 11- nation Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries earlier this month to increase Saudi Arabia's production quota by 760,000 barrels per day. "Even if oil prices dipped by one to two dollars next year because of higher production, the kingdom's revenues will still be high," a banker said.
- With oil exports of around 6.5 million barrels per day (bpd), and petrochemical and other non-oil exports of four to six billion dollars, the government was forecast to earn as much as 45 billion dollars in 1997 compared with projected revenues of 43.7 billion. But the extra funds failed to eliminate the budget deficit, since part of the funds were used to replenish the country's international reserves, which had been eroded over the past decade because of the costs of the 1991 Gulf War and weak crude prices.
- The budget deficit stood at 3.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 1996 compared with 5.8 percent in 1995 and more than 30 percent in 1991. The Saudi economy grew by 7.1 percent in 1997 with GDP reaching 145 billion dollars, King Fahd told the cabinet. He praised "the good performance of the Saudi economy in which GDP grew by 7.1 percent over the previous year to reach 547 billion rials (145 billion dollars).
- The private sector's share of GDP amounted to 46.7 percent in 1997, a finance ministry statement said Monday. This represented a 4.1 percent increase on 1996, compared with a 1996 increase of 3.6 percent on the previous year, the ministry said. The Saudi cabinet announced it would privatise the Gulf kingdom's vast telecommunication sector earlier this month, the first in a string of planned sell-offs bankers expect will net the government more than 20 billion dollars.
- The Saudi government first announced plans to privatise profitable sectors including telecommunications, the post office, aviation, electricity and water in 1995. But the programme was delayed after a surge in crude prices filled its coffers and boosted the economy in the following two years. Saudi Arabia's balance of payments stayed in the black for the second year running with a surplus of 870 million rials (232 million dollars) in 1997 against 803 million rials (214 million dollars) in 1996, the king said Monday.
- The eight percent increase in the trade surplus was due to an increase in the value of non-oil as well as oil exports, he said. The government's planned expenditure of 196 billion rials (52.2 billion dollars) included education spending of 45.5 billion rials (12.1 billion dollars) and health spending of 19.7 billion rials (5.2 billion dollars), Farsi said. Spending on the country's industrial infrastructure and electricity network would amount to 10.6 billion rials (2.6 billion dollars), and that on social and development projects to nine billion rials (2.4 billion dollars), he said. As usual, no figure was given for the size of the defence budget, which ususally amounts to between 30 and 35 percent of government spending
Freedom of Religions, The Washington Post, September 11, 1997
- AMONG THOSE persecuted by authoritarian regimes today are millions of Christians denied, often brutally, the freedom to practice their faith. This is so in China, where only the "official" church is tolerated and where independent bishops and believers are harassed and imprisoned. It is so in some -- but by no means all -- Islamic countries, including some that are harshly criticized by the U.S. government, such as Sudan and Afghanistan, and others that remain close allies, such as Saudi Arabia.
- The narrowly drawn sanctions contained in this bill would actually provide "less rather than more protection than existing human rights law," according to a letter signed by the heads of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and a handful of like-minded organizations. The difficulty is that neither the administration nor Congress has shown the political will to enforce existing law when it comes to close strategic or commercial partners such as China and Saudi Arabia. The proposed legislation is flawed. But if, as it moves through Congress, it elevates the role of human rights in U.S. foreign policy, it will represent an achievement.
Reports of this harsh persecution have provided the impetus for a bill now gathering steam in the House. The Freedom From Religious Persecution Act of 1997, sponsored by Virginia's Rep. Frank Wolf and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, would create a new Office of Religious Persecution Monitoring in the White House. The director, subordinate only to the president, would be charged with reporting on abuses against religious minorities. Serious abuses would trigger automatic economic sanctions. The bill would have the director examine first and foremost the treatment of Christians, Tibetan Buddhists and Bahais, but then the office could move on to other faiths. Those fleeing religious persecution would get special treatment from U.S. asylum officers.
The bill, opposed by the Clinton administration for, among other things, restricting its flexibility in foreign-policy matters, has attracted support from a wide spectrum, ranging from liberal Democrats to conservative Republicans. Some welcome it primarily as a vehicle to express displeasure with China, others as a means to force more attention to human-rights matters in general, and still others primarily as a defense of the Christian groups that provided the initial inspiration for it.
Some longtime advocates of religious freedom around the world raise objections to aspects of the bill while supporting its goals and intentions. There is concern, well-founded in precedent, that a separate White House office removed from State Department and National Security Council policymakers could end up marginalizing the issue rather than elevating it. Naming some persecuted groups while neglecting others could send a message that Congress values Bahais in Iran, say, more than Sunni Muslims there. More broadly, singling out the freedom to worship risks sending a message that some human rights are more cherished than others. Proponents believe they are simply righting past imbalances, but it is important that China understand that a brave political dissident such as Wei Jingsheng is no more, nor less, important to Americans than equally courageous Catholic bishops or Tibetan Buddhists now suffering in labor camps. This potential hierarchy is particularly troubling in the area of granting asylum, which should be made more accessible for all who are persecuted.