U.S. Home Price Growth Strengthened in October
The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index covering the entire nation rose 5.2% in the 12 months ended in October, stronger than a 4.9% increase in September. (…)
All 20 cities were up month-over-month, seasonally adjusted. After seasonal adjustment the national index was up 0.9%. The 10-city and 20-city composite were up 0.8% over the month. (…)
Saudi Arabia Won’t Change Oil Production
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia won’t change its current reliable production policy and is ready to meet any additional demand from its customers, the kingdom’s oil minister Ali al-Naimi said Wednesday.
“It is a reliable policy and we won’t change it,” Mr. Naimi told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Riyadh.
“We will satisfy the demand of our customers. We no longer limit production. If there is demand, we will respond. We have the capacity to respond to demand,” he said. (…)
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Outlook for oil hit by Saudi budget cuts Prices under pressure after Riyadh prepares for long-term pain
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Saudi rulers weigh political cost of economic reforms
(…) By raising gasoline prices by half, from a negligible $0.16 (U.S.) a litre to a merely cheap $0.24 a litre, Saudi Arabia’s new rulers showed willing to make some tough decisions in their quest to enact sweeping economic reforms for an era of low oil revenue.
The financial viability of the world’s top oil exporter and its ruling Al Saud family hinges on its stomach to sustain such extensive changes in a country that has no elections and where political legitimacy rests on distribution of oil revenue. (…)
The government has pledged to reduce growth in the public payroll of 450 billion riyals ($166-billion Canadian), for example, but has given little information of how it will do so in a country where the majority of working Saudis are employed by the state.
The Al Saud, nervous of inciting unrest, has often fought shy of reforms that may anger normal Saudis, but with oil prices seemingly locked in at low levels, the administration of King Salman, who took power in January, is pushing big changes. (…)