The low prices for crude are costing Saudi Arabia some serious cash. The Saudi central bank reported last week that its net foreign assets fell 4.7% year-over-year in March to about $691 billion, their lowest level since July 2013. The Saudis nicked their savings account to the tune of $36 billion in the last two months as the country’s new king has had to increase both withdrawals and borrowing to meet the kingdom’s public-sector salaries and large development projects according to a report in the Financial Times. One analyst firm has said that crude oil output from OPEC countries in April rose by 125,000 barrels a day month-over-month to 30.9 million barrels a day, with most of the increase due to higher Saudi production. OPEC production averaged 1.2 million barrels a day more year-over-year compared with the two-month March-April period in 2014. And that level of production is not […]