RIYADH, Feb 8: Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah has ordered an end to lavish government spending, saying the kingdom is facing a “suffocating” economic crisis.

In a circular carried by local Arab daily ‘Al-Watan’ on Friday, and issued to government departments, the prince said, “We have noticed that many government bodies are making requests higher than their allocated budgets, without any consideration for the suffocating crisis that our country is passing through.”

According to some recent press articles, Saudi public spending last year exceeded the budgetary allocation by SR40 billion ($10.7 billion) against an expenditure forecast of SR 215 billion, despite repeated calls for restraint.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) on Thursday denied Western press reports that it was monitoring the bank accounts of important individuals or private establishments. It emphasized that such private accounts enjoyed full protection under the rules and regulations in the kingdom.

“We have frozen only four accounts,” the SAMA official was reported as saying here. SAMA was responding to a report carried by the Wall Street Journal saying the Agency was monitoring accounts of a number of important personalities and private establishments.

Officials however, reiterated the Saudi position that they would continue to cooperate with international efforts to fight terrorism and money laundering by implementing the concerned UN Security Council Resolutions. The said resolution mentions more than 150 individuals and agencies, most of which were of foreign origin and more than 97 per cent of them have no accounts or dealings with Saudi banks.

Officials said that Saudi banks are not allowed to provide any information on bank dealings or accounts to official or non- official agencies, be they inside or outside the country, except through SAMA, the official said. This is to provide legal protection and ensure secrecy of such personal information, he added.

The firms mentioned in the Wall Street Journal are among the top 100 Saudi companies, which enjoy a high reputation in the kingdom. They are headed by businessmen of the highest integrity and have contributed immensely to the development of Saudi Arabia as a modern nation.

Some of the businessmen listed in the Wall Street Journal report when contacted by the local Saudi daily Arab News reacted angrily to the report and blasted the US authorities for carrying out a witch hunt against them. One likened the move to a kind of terrorism, saying the US authorities were merely satisfying their urge for revenge.