Saudi Arabia restores civil service and military allowances

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a royal decree on Saturday restoring financial allowances for civil servants and military personnel that had been cut under austerity measures.

“The royal order returns all allowances, financial benefits, and bonuses to civil servants and military staff,” said the decree, broadcast on state-run Ekhbariya TV.

In September Saudi Arabia cut ministers’ salaries by 20 percent and scaled back financial perks for public sector employees in one of the energy-rich kingdom’s most drastic measures to save money at a time of low oil prices.

The measures were the first pay cuts for government employees, who make up about two-thirds of working Saudis.

The decree canceled those orders, saying they had come as a response to the sharp drop in the price of oil, the main source of state revenues.

Oil prices sank to a low of around $28 last January amid a two-year price slump. Since late 2016, however, prices have partially rebounded, with Brent crude LCOc1 now trading around $52 a barrel compared to last year’s average of $45.

 

Read the whole story from Reuters.