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Five years into King Saud’s reign, the country was facing bankruptcy. Civil servants, soldiers, and contractors were not being paid. The American-owned oil company Aramco refused to make additional loans against future Saudi production.19 The Saudi Riyal was devalued by 50 percent, inflation soared, and there was labor unrest in the Eastern Province. By 1957, the kingdom was forced to seek a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which insisted on seeing the country’s first detailed budget. That financial plan sharply reduced royal family living expenses. Over the next six years privy-purse expenditures fell by two thirds. In Riyadh, many half-finished palaces were abandoned, and infuriated princes correctly blamed their distress on King Saud’s financial mismanagement.
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