King Abdullah takes up the reins as economy booms

International markets reacted to the death of Saudi Arabia’s monarch King Fahd by raising oil prices sharply to more than $61 a barrel.

But the bout of real nervousness did not last long. For the succession had been long established and western diplomats had been well briefed about what would happen. King Abdullah had in any case been the de facto ruler for more than a decade following Fahd’s stroke-induced incapacitation.

However, the new ruler is in his eighties and diplomats believe that there will be a period of up to a decade in which real power is wielded by the older generation of the Saudi royal family.