Saudi Arabia is poor country: newspaper

Saudi Arabia should be classified as a poor country as nearly 20 per cent of its national population lives under the poverty line while around 1.5 million rely on minimal social aid, a Saudi newspaper reported on Monday.

Anbaukum online Arabic language paper was commenting on a report that a Saudi man, his wife and six children were seen this week crammed in a tiny shabby tent he has just set up in the Holy City of Makkah after he was evicted from his house for being unable to pay rent.

The paper quoted Atallah Al Rashid as saying he could no longer afford paying rent for his house after he was sacked from his job as a driver at a government department. He told the paper that he was indebted by around SR50,000 although his monthly salary did not exceed SR3,000.

The paper ran the report under the heading “While Saudi Arabia controls nearly 25 per cent of the world’s oil, a Saudi family lives in a tent after it was kicked out from their house because they could no longer pay rent".

Citing unofficial estimates, the paper said around 20 per cent of the nearly 19 million Saudis are living under the poverty line and more than 75 per cent of them are owe large sums of money in the form of consumer loans.

The paper also cited official data showing nearly 1.5 million Saudis live on social security aid of around SR869 a month.

“These figures reflect the real poverty problem in Saudi Arabia despite efforts to tackle it…there is a real poverty problem in the country,” it said.

“Reports and pictures published by Saudi newspapers from time to time show many people live in tin houses, which do not provide the minimum level of services… these can be classified by international standards as among the people who are very impoverished, which means food poverty.”

Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and the world’s dominant oil power, has a GDP per capita income of around $14,270 in 2009 and it is projected to climb to nearly $15,700 this year because of a surge in the nominal economy.

But it remains far below the per capita income in neighbouring Qatar and the UAE, estimated at around 80,000 and 45,000 respectively in 2009.

Besides poverty, Saudi Arabia is also suffering from unemployment, with the rate official put at around 11 per cent this year. Unemployment in the kingdom has worsened in the past years because of a rapid population growth, an economic slowdown in some years and preference by the private sector of foreign labour.

In their report abut the tent, Anbaukum and Okaz Arabic daily said Rashid set up his tent-house in deserted area in the outskirts of Makkah, adding that the tent is small, shabby and contains only two beds, few plates and torn children clothes. “What choice do I have,” asked Rashid. “I have only this tent to protect my family from the day sun, the night cold weather and the greediness of landlords.”
 

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