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Saudi Arabia's top religious authority urged citizens to support government austerity measures, saying recent decrees were temporary moves necessitated by public interest, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
King Salman, in one of the most drastic measures to save money, ordered salaries of ministers and Shoura council members cut this week by 20% and 15%, and scaled back financial perks for public sector employees.
Okaz newspaper quoted the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh as saying that the recent orders were necessitated by special conditions would not be in place forever.
"Cooperation and helping the state in what it sees to be in the public interest and honest vision is necessary," Okaz quoted al-Sheikh as saying in his weekly radio address on Wednesday.
"What has been issued is incidental and will fade away."
The plunge in oil prices since mid-2014 has pushed Gulf Arab states to rein in lavish public spending. Saudi Arabia racked up a record budget deficit of nearly $100bn last year, forcing it to find new savings and ways to raise money.
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