The two-month salary bonus awarded to Saudi government employees by the new king on Monday will inject $16 billion (SAR60 billion) into the economy, economists have said.
King Salman ordered that Saudi state employees should receive two months of extra salary to mark his accession to power after the death of his brother King Abdullah.
Several of the largest companies in Saudi said on Monday they would pay out hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses after the new king ordered the payout.
Economists have estimated that the payout will benefit around six million citizens and, based on an average bonus of SAR10,000 per employee, total SAR60 billion over the next ten days, reported Arab News.
That will boost Saudis’ purchasing power with a positive impact on the national economy. One economist, Osama Filali, told the Al Madinah newspaper that he expects people to spend the money on consumer goods.
Filali warned that the Saudi Ministry of Commerce should intervene to maintain stable prices, because pumping billions of riyals into the market can lead to inflation.
Separately, some expats working for the Saudi Arabian government have said they also should be entitled to the two-month bonus King Salman announced for nationals in the public sector.
In letters to the Saudi Gazette newspaper this week, expats working in the government sector called for the bonus to also be extended to them.
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