Saudi Arabia will not impose any new taxes until 2030 and the unemployment rate in the kingdom will begin to decline from 2019, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz has said.
In an interview with Bloomberg, he said the kingdom is moving in the right direction, and a major deal will be announced in two weeks.
The Crown Prince also affirmed that the kingdom is able to protect its interests and it buy weapons from the US and does not take them for free, said a Saudi Press Agency report quoting the Bloomberg report.
He said the kingdom had 1.3 million barrels of oil a day ready in case the market needs it.
He said in the interview that all the armaments the kingdom gets from the US are paid for. "So ever since the relationship started between Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, we’ve bought everything with money. Before two years ago, we had a strategy to shift most of our armament to other countries, but when President Trump became president, we’ve changed our armament strategy again for the next 10 years to put more than 60 percent with the United States of America. That’s why we’ve created the $400 billion in opportunities, armaments and investment opportunities, and other trade opportunities. So this is a good achievement for President Trump, for Saudi Arabia. Also included in these agreements are that part of these armaments will be manufactured in Saudi Arabia, so it will create jobs in America and Saudi Arabia, good trade, good benefits for both countries and also good economic growth. Plus, it will help our security.
On oil price, he said the oil price depends on supply and demand. "What we are committed in Saudi Arabia is to make sure there is no shortage of supply. So we work with our allies in Opec and also non-Opec countries to be sure that we have a sustainable supply of oil and there is no shortage and that there is good demand, that it will not create problems for the consumers and their plans and development," said the Crown Prince.
He said the US had made a request to Saudi Arabia and other Opec countries cover the likely loss of supply from Iran and that has been done. "Recently, Iran reduced their exports by 700,000 barrels a day, if I’m not mistaken. And Saudi Arabia and Opec and non-Opec countries, have produced 1.5 million barrels a day more. So we export as much as two barrels for any barrel that disappeared from Iran recently. So we did our job and more.
"We believe the higher price that we have in the last month, it’s not because of Iran. It’s mostly because of things happening in Canada, and Mexico, Libya, Venezuela and other countries that moved the price a little bit higher. But Iran, definitely no. Because they reduced 700,000 barrels and we’ve exported more than 1.5 million barrels a day," he tolf Bloomberg.
Prince Mohammed said Saudi Arabia produced around 10.7 million of oil now and had spare capacity of 1.3 million without any investment.
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