Saudi Arabia is the biggest economy in the Middle East and the staunchest producer of oil worldwide, but by the end of this year the country will face a budget of 21.6 percent and a further 19.4 percent in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund's latest regional economic outlook.
The Saudis are currently facing the worst budget deficit in over six years, and an US$82 billion drop in net foreign assets in the first eight months of the year. The U.S.-controlled IMF urged the Saudi government to readjust their spending or face the consequences.
The IMF explained that Saudi's imminent problems are centered on key elements, primarily that in the Middle East regional conflicts are spreading and deepening, and that prices of oil are being forced to drop in order to drive Washington's foes Russia, Iran and Venezuela - namely -- into crisis. Today, the Middle East is facing the worst refugee and displacement crisis since the early 1990s and this will produce about 10 million unemployed people in the region.
"Achieving fiscal sustainability over the medium-term will be especially challenging given the need to create jobs for the more than 10 million people anticipated to be looking for work by 2020 in the region's oil exporting countries," IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department Director Masood Ahmed told journalists after the report's unveiling in Dubai, according to RT. The report highlights the assertion by many experts that low oil prices will continue in place for the foreseeable future.
"For the region's oil exporters, the fall in prices has led to large fall in revenue, amounting to a staggering $360 billion this year alone," Masood Ahmed said. OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Algeria and Libya have all seen their revenues drop sharply as a result of a decline in oil prices. A solution for Saudi's crisis would be to reduce their oil output, as many countries have asked them to do. The main drive in this proposal has been Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has been exerting great efforts to achieve stabilization of the price of oil at around US$88 per barrel, far from the current US$48.
5/ Venezuala has been US "No. 1 or 2 target for regime change for more than a decade."
Oil price manipulation twofer hit Russia & Venez
โ Joanne Leon (@joanneleon) March 11, 2015
#coldwar over? Think again. #ruble crash part of active policy to destabilise #Russia & #Iran through oil price manipulation by #US & #OPEC
โ Sorrel Warnes-York (@GimpusMaxi) December 16, 2014
Reuters reported this Friday that the price of oil had dropped once more to complete two weeks of decline. Geopolitical analyst and writer Ulson Gunar earlier in the year wrote an article suggesting nobody should be surprised that Washington is behind the manipulation of the price of oil. He also accused Western countries of using mainstream media to invent stories "in an attempt to explain why oil prices have conveniently fallen, just in time to pressure Russia, Venezuela and Iran." Washington believes that the three countries took advantage of high oil revenues to pursue an "aggressive" anti-American agenda, which is why they decided to manipulate the price of oil and in conspiracy with mainstream media, they But, he noted, the objective to assert U.S. interests around the world completely failed.
#coldwar over? Think again. #ruble crash part of active policy to destabilise #Russia & #Iran through oil price manipulation by #US & #OPEC
โ Sorrel Warnes-York (@GimpusMaxi) December 16, 2014
OIL PRICE MANIPULATION: US and Cronies last ditch throw of the dice to destabilise Russia is time limited.
#UK #USA #Russia #WhiteHouse
โ Hermius (@Hermius1) December 17, 2014
Comment: Because when you're going broke, that makes so much sense. Maybe it does when you are buying from the world's bully.
As far as 'pressuring' Russia, that little gambit appears to be a bust, thanks to the strategists in the Kremlin, who easily foresaw that Russia's dependence on oil revenues was a potential trap. Russia has taken solid steps to assure its economic self-reliance.