Saudi royals spending big in age of austerity

Tangier, Morocco

BEHIND a tall perimeter wall, studded with surveillance cameras and guarded by Moroccan soldiers, a sprawling new palace for King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia rose on the Atlantic coast here last summer.

Even as the Saudi government cancelled a quarter of a trillion dollars' worth of projects back home as part of a fiscal austerity programme, workers hustled to finish bright blue landing pads for helicopters at the vacation compound and to erect a tent the size of a circus big-top where the king could feast and entertain his enormous retinue.