VOL. XXXIX

No. 26

25-March-1996

SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Government Starts Payment Of Arrears To Local Farmers

According to bankers in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Government has begun issuing payment certificates worth more than $2.4bn for arrears owed to some 30,000 local farmers up to the end of 1995. In an effort to diversify the oil-based economy, the Saudi Government has since the 1980s subsidized wheat production in the Kingdom and bought the output from farmers at prices above world...