Debt - external: $28 billion (1998 est.)
Economic aid - donor: pledged $100 million in 1993 to fund reconstruction of Lebanon; since 1993, Saudi Arabia has committed $208 million for assistance to the Palestinians
Currency: 1 Saudi riyal (SR) = 100 halalah
Exchange rates: Saudi riyals (SR) per US$1 - 3.7450 (fixed rate since
June 1986)
Fiscal year: calendar year
@Saudi Arabia:Communications
Telephones - main lines in use: 3.1 million (1998)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 1 million note: in 1998, the government contracted for the installation of 575,000 additional Group Speciale Mobile (GSM) cellular telephone lines over 15 months to raise the total number of subscribers to more than one million; Riyadh planned to further expand the GSM system in 1999 by adding an additional one million lines (1998)
Telephone system: modern system domestic: extensive microwave radio relay and coaxial and fiber-optic cable systems international: microwave radio relay to Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Yemen, and Sudan; coaxial cable to Kuwait and Jordan; submarine cable to Djibouti, Egypt and Bahrain; satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (3 Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean), 1 Arabsat, and 1 Inmarsat (Indian Ocean region)
Radio broadcast stations: AM 43, FM 31, shortwave 2 (1998)