Arab News, Tuesday, Jul 05, 2022 | Zul Hijjah 6, 1443
King Salman approves $5.32bn to help citizens affected by rise in global commodity prices
Saudi Arabia:
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Monday issued a royal order approving allocation
of SR20 billion ($5.32 billion) to help citizens mitigate the impacts of rising
global prices.
Half of the allocated money will go to social insurance beneficiaries and the
Citizen Account Program.
Earlier, while chairing a meeting of the Council of Economic and Development
Affairs Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed the need to focus on the
Kingdom’s neediest citizens in the wake of the increasing cost of some basic
needs.
He laid emphasis on the important roles of ministries and government agencies in
monitoring international developments, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
It includes issues related to food supply chains, monitoring markets, product
availability and price levels, and protecting and encouraging fair competition,
as well as combating and preventing monopolistic practices that affect
legitimate competition or the interest of the consumers.
During the meeting held in Jeddah, the council reviewed several economic and
development issues. The ministries of commerce, environment, water and
agriculture and economy and planning jointly gave a presentation on the price
levels of different products in the Kingdom.
The Health Ministry also briefed the council on the developments related to the
coronavirus disease. The ministry’s presentation included an update following
the decision to lift the precautionary measures related to COVID-19 and updates
on administering vaccines. The council was also briefed about this year’s Hajj
preparations and the state of the epidemiological situation internationally.
The top body also followed up on the periodic presentation submitted by the
Ministry of Economy and Planning containing the analysis of economic activities
and the impact of the pandemic.
The council has taken the necessary recommendations on these issues, SPA said.
OECD forecast
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development recently predicted that Saudi Arabia is expected to enjoy lower
levels of inflation at a time when the world’s economies are suffering from a
spike in global food and commodity prices.
Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product is expected
to grow by more than double the rate of other G20 economies, the OECD said.
The Saudi economy will grow by 7.8 percent in
2022, while G20 economies are expected to grow by 2.9 percent, reported OECD in
its economic outlook.
The OECD also revised up the Saudi gross domestic
product growth in 2023 to 9.0 percent, tripling the G20 average growth, while
the Kingdom’s inflation rate will remain below the G20 average of 6.3 percent.
Saudi Arabia, Argentina, and Turkey are among the
few rare cases showing positive GDP growth since the Ukraine war started.
Saudi inflation
Saudi Arabia’s annual consumer inflation slowed to
2.2 percent in May, from 2.3 percent in April, according to the latest data
released by the General Authority for Statistics.
The slowdown in headline inflation is driven mainly by the deceleration of
growth in miscellaneous goods, transport as well as clothing and footwear
prices, data compiled by Arab News revealed.
In May, the main components of the CPI inflation were food and beverages (+4.2
percent) and transport (+4 percent), according to GASTAT.