RIYADH, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Imports of Saudi private sector dropped during February by 40.7 percent, hitting 8.3 billion riyals (about 2.22 billion U.S. dollar) comparing to 14.1 billions in the February 2008.

    The news came from a report issued by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) and published by the Saudi Arabian daily "Al-Riyadh" on Saturday.

    It said the report gave indicators of which the most important is the drop of costs of imported goods, which were either due to the drop of prices because of global financial crisis and the availability of large stocks of commodities that have been imported against higher price, or due to the drop of consumer demand that prompted the importers to contract the volume of exports.

    Saudi imports have made a record of 18.8 billion riyals in June2008, a time that witnessed a major increase in inflation rates.

    The report said the global drop of prices is not tangible in the local market till the moment.

    Meanwhile, the paper said local banks have forced three local steel producers to put their factories for sale and called local and foreign investors to make offers to buy these factories.

    The Saudi daily pointed out that calls for selling the factories after the companies failed to reimburse overdue loans due to the crisis that hit Saudi steel market.

    Al-Riyadh noted that all attempts to keep the companies afloat failed because these attempts were individual and not supported by the government.