The Saudi cabinet stressed on Tuesday the Kingdom's constant keenness on achieving stability in the global oil market.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz chaired a cabinet meeting that was held via video-conference.
The cabinet added that Riyadh firmly committed with Moscow to go ahead with the targeted cuts within the next two years. They will continue to closely monitor the market. They are also ready to take additional measures with OPEC+ members and other oil producers.
The OPEC+ group of major producers last week agreed record production cuts of 9.7 million bpd. This is to prop up prices that had shed more than 60%. As the COVID-19 illness shut down businesses worldwide. Producers outside the alliance pledged to cut an additional 3.7 million bpd.
King Salman also highlighted the advent of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. He hoped that the world will overcome the novel coronavirus. Ramadan will begin later this week.
The cabinet hailed the royal decree that called for supporting the private sector and individuals during the outbreak. Earlier this month, King Salman had ordered the disbursement of up to 9 billion riyals ($2.39 billion) in financial support to more than 1.2 million citizens who work in private sector companies affected by the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak.
The order will ensure that instead of laying off the Saudi employees, business owners would submit a request to the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) to pay 60 percent of salaries, as a form of compensation, for a period of three months, at 9,000 riyals per month at most. It applies to Saudi employees in the private sector who didn't get their salaries due to the impact of the coronavirus.
The cabinet was also briefed on the latest developments related to the coronavirus pandemic in Saudi Arabia and the world. It underlined the efforts to combat the disease in the Kingdom, as well as efforts to return Saudis stranded abroad back to their home.
Furthermore, it praised the Kingdom's allocation of 500 million dollars to the international fight against the coronavirus.
