Saudi Arabia to Support the Poor

‘Saudi Arabia plans to extend 10 billion riyals ($2.7 billion) in credit to low-income citizens as the oil-producer giant steps up efforts to contain the fallout from the global financial crisis,’ Al Arabiya reported Sunday.

‘Saudi King Abdullah ordered that the additional funds be deposited in the Saudi Credit Bank, which was established to extend interest-free loans to Saudi citizens with limited resources to help them overcome financial difficulties.’

The country’s Minister of Finance Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf told the SPA news agency: “This kind royal gift comes as an extension of the King’s decisions and directives aiming to sense the needs of citizens, especially citizens of limited income.”

According to Al-Assaf, hundreds of thousands of families would benefit from the program.

Like Western finance ministers and leaders, Gulf finance ministers have talked with each other extensively about the crisis, and are trying to find ways to cooperate in order to limit the damage done by the current crisis which is slowly but surely forcing all major economies into a recession.