Saudi Arabia Spending Means Less Room for OPEC to Cut Output

Saudi Arabia’s plan to continue spending on social projects and security increases the likelihood that the world’s biggest oil exporter will stick with OPEC’s policy of maintaining output even as crude prices plunge.

“Saudi Arabia is backing up OPEC policy with action to strengthen the home front against the adverse impact of falling oil prices,” Arabia Monitor Chief Economist Florence Eid-Oakden, whose firm advises investors on business risks in the Middle East, said yesterday by phone from London.