Saudi newspapers highlighted in their editorials today a number of issues at local, regional, and international arenas. Al-Riyadh and Al-Bilad newspapers reported in its editorials that the provisions and penalties announced yesterday by the Ministry of Interior for violators of the measures taken to curb the outbreak of the novel coronavirus have strongly affirmed that the government is determined to combat the virus outbreak by taking the necessary deterrent decisions against anyone does not abide with such measures. The papers added that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was among the first countries took preventive measures to confront the outbreak of the virus, harnessing all its capabilities to limit its spread. The papers concluded that Saudi Arabia's key goal is to protect the health and safety of citizens and residents, in addition to limit the outbreak of the virus. Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported in its editorial that the Minister of Finance indicated that coronavirus pandemic has unprecedented negative impacts on the global economy, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the leadership of King Salman and direct supervision of HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has set plans to limit the impacts of this pandemic in public finance. The paper added that the public budget today bears most of the impacts and this requires amending many estimates related to revenues and reducing expenditures in order to reduce the percentage of the deficit to acceptable levels as a minimum.
