Low oil prices have pushed top exporter Saudi Arabia to hasten difficult economic reforms and cut spending on popular benefits, but it has few options beyond sticking with a strategy to defend its market share – no matter how low prices sink. A return of Iranian crude to the market after sanctions were lifted may now plunge prices to new lows after a 19-month drop of 76 percent that caused Riyadh’s $54 billion fiscal surplus in 2013 to swing to a $98 billion deficit last year. Saudi Arabia’s reduced economic circumstances are already obvious in government spending cuts and a first rise in subsidized petrol prices for a decade, but Riyadh’s new rulers, King Salman and his two heirs, show no sign of changing course. Khaled al-Falih, chairman of […]