The Minister of Finance stated that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with clear orders from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince established several task forces to face this crisis, both in the health sector and the economic and financial sectors. It has also taken several measures to support the economy with the main aim of protecting the jobs of citizens in the private sector, supporting the necessary services, and providing financial and other resources for the health sector. He stated that the Kingdom announced a set of packages that have exceeded nearly 180 billion riyals, which represents 8 percent of the non-oil domestic product. He also added that the Kingdom have a set of initiatives, which are currently being studied, to support the private and health sectors, indicating that the Kingdom have also taken steps to reduce expenditure, due to the large decrease in revenues and are expected to continue dropping throughout the year, and the next financial year, pointing out that the Kingdom must to be prepared economically and financially to face this pandemic and the acute and painful impact on the people and the private sector. He stressed that we are facing a crisis, which the world has not seen before, neither the health wise nor financially for decades. Therefore, the government must take different measures than it previously has, adding that there must be a limit on spending, redirecting some spending to provide health services for nationals and residents. And we must face the impact of this major shock in return. He also indicated that the government has decided to reduce some spending as of now, but this is not enough, so it decided to borrow more than what was planned for, pointing out that the plan was to borrow a 1.2 billion Riyal, but now we will borrow more than that, nearly 100 billion riyals more, indicating that it is also not enough to cover the debt. Therefore, it is important to observe the budget’s spending list and to choose the least damaging and most effective measures to benefit the economy and the people and the main services provided. --More 04:54 LOCAL TIME 01:54 GMT 0023 www.spa.gov.sa/w1320475