Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah doesn't want to see street protests take over his country: He's ready to spend a total of $36 billion on social support measures. Prospective measures include a salary increase of 15 percent for civil servants, which should cover inflation. In addition, the king promised to defer loan payments for debtors who are in jail, and also to help students and the unemployed. The ruler of Saudi Arabia took these steps despite the fact that his country has not yet had any riots like those that took place in Tunisia and Egypt, and that are ongoing in Libya.
The announcement of these measures came immediately after the king returned from medical treatment abroad. Even before his departure, the king promised to spend $400 billion on education, infrastructure and health care by the end of 2014. "The country's budget could easily cope with such spending, but this is a cure for medium-term problems rather than long-term problems such as housing or unemployment," a senior economist at Saudi Fransi Bank said. Despite economic growth, unemployment remains at around 10 percent, which perhaps explains why thousands of people have already signed up on Facebook to hold a "Day of Wrath" in Saudi Arabia on March 11.
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