Riyadh, e-Media

In an exceptional meeting chaired by Crown Prince today in Riyadh, the Saudi cabinet
announced the new year 1436/1437 budget. A speech from King Abdullah was read on his
behalf by the cabinet's secretary general.

Excerpts:

[This is to announce the 1436/1437 budget amounting to SR 860,000,000,000. It is a
continuation to the expenditure on balanced comprehensive development, improvement of
services to the population, and creation of more jobs in the public and private sectors.
The slow growth of the  of the world economy and the developments of the oil market
contributed to substantial drop in oil prices. We have instructed government official to
take these development into consideration, rationalize expenditure and proceed with
projects that were not completed in the budgets of previous years].