- Sort by:
- Score
- Published ▼
-
MBS-Trump Investment Pledge Boosts Aramco US LNG Investment Plans
...int venture with Shell. This operated three refineries with a combined crude processing capacity of 1.065mn b/d, but was split up in 2017 with Aramco ending up with a 100% stake in the 600,000 b/d Port Arthur refinery (MEES, 10 March 2017). The Port Arthur plant accounted for 115,000 b/d of Saudi cr...
Volume: 68Issue: 05Published at Fri, 31 Jan 2025 -
Egypt’s Nuclear Megaproject Faces Uncertainty As Russian Funding Squeezed
...the Mediterranean coast 170km west of Alexandria. This was followed by a 2017 agreement greenlighting several contracts for construction (MEES, 15 December 2017), which effectively began in 2022 (MEES, 8 July 2022). Under the agreements, Russian state nuclear energy firm Rosatom will build the fo...
Volume: 67Issue: 03Published at Fri, 19 Jan 2024 -
Iraq’s Oil Revenues Down 15% From 2022’s Record
...e country dropping by 105,000 b/d to 911,000 b/d according to data intelligence firm Kpler (see chart 2). This is the lowest annual figure since 2017’s 845,000 b/d. Exports to India dipped to 741,000 b/d in June 2023, some 530,000 b/d below their March 2022 peak of 1.27mn b/d. Volumes however re...
Volume: 67Issue: 02Published at Fri, 12 Jan 2024 -
Saudi Arabia Unveils PIF’s Five Year Strategy
...erall, Saudi GDP growth has been slow since the late-2014 oil price crash (see chart 1). The late-2017 decision to end austerity measures (MEES, 22 December 2017) that were crimping growth had been paying dividends, but the unprecedented turmoil of last year derailed the economy. The IMF’s latest es...
Volume: 64Issue: 04Published at Fri, 29 Jan 2021 -
Algeria Sees $10.6bn 2020 Trade Deficit With Revenues At 18-Year Low
...me (MEES, 17 June 2020), policy initiatives have been state-driven and focused on dealing with the symptoms rather than the underlying malaise: from printing money (MEES, 13 October 2017), to banning whole swathes of imports (MEES, 1 January 2018). Official foreign currency reserves collapsed from al...
Volume: 64Issue: 03Published at Fri, 22 Jan 2021 -
Qatar Keeps Crown As Largest LNG Exporter For 2020
...ven that Qatar is working to expand capacity to 126mn t/y by 2027 and expects first gas from its new trains in 2025 (MEES, 10 April 2020). Qatar’s continued presence at the top in recent years came despite the Saudi-led economic embargo of Qatar from June 2017. That embargo was finally lifted last we...
Volume: 64Issue: 02Published at Fri, 15 Jan 2021 -
IMF Highlights Kuwait’s Economic Troubles
...ve turned to borrowing in order to fill the budget blackholes, Kuwait’s fractious politics have made this impossible. Unable to get a new debt law through parliament, Kuwait has instead resorted to drawing from its General Reserves Fund since 2017 – a clearly unsustainable strategy. The IMF says th...
Volume: 63Issue: 05Published at Fri, 31 Jan 2020 -
Qatar Trade: Surplus Dips In 2019 As LNG Pricing Pressure Augurs Worse To Come
...Lower energy prices caused Qatar’s trade surplus to dip in 2019. An increasingly well-supplied LNG market points towards a further slide in 2020. Qatar’s economy has proven resilient ever since the onset of the regional blockade in June 2017 (MEES, 9 June 2017) as its hydrocarbon-driven ex...
Volume: 63Issue: 05Published at Fri, 31 Jan 2020 -
Kuwait Budgets For Mega Deficit In 2020-21
...curate, then it will run up a cumulative $144bn deficit over the seven years to March 2021. Its last budget surplus was $16.5bn in 2013-14. This is particularly problematic as the government has been unable to issue new debt since October 2017 due to legislative gridlock holding up the passage of a ne...
Volume: 63Issue: 03Published at Fri, 17 Jan 2020 -
Kuwait 2019-20 Budget Envisages Bumper Deficit Amid Faltering Oil Prices
...vestment the key culprit. Mr Hajraf says Kuwait will maintain development spending at 17% of the total for 2019-20, some $12.4bn. An admirable aim, but one that ignores reality. 2017-18 was the closest Kuwait got to achieving this with 13%: for 2018-19 Kuwait is on track to invest just $5.5bn in in...
Volume: 62Issue: 04Published at Fri, 25 Jan 2019 -
Egypt Delays Subsidy Reform With Economy On The Mend
...ansport fuel subsidies in 2H 2018, the first half of the country’s 2018-19 financial year. This puts the country bang on target to hit the 2018-19 budget plan of E£89bn ($5.2bn). It also marks a real-terms fall of 21% versus the E£45bn ($2.9bn) spend for 1H 2017-18 given 12% inflation. But the co...
Volume: 62Issue: 02Published at Fri, 11 Jan 2019 -
Algeria Set For 11th Straight Deficit In 2019
...dget anticipating a $17.4bn deficit. Algeria has run up cumulative budget deficits of over $100bn since 2009, with deficits recorded even in 2011-14 when oil prices were over $100/B. They have ballooned since as oil prices tanked (see charts 1 &2). 2017 was the closest Algeria has got to ba...
Volume: 62Issue: 02Published at Fri, 11 Jan 2019 -
Algeria Notches Up $11bn 2017 Trade Deficit; Total Since 2015 Hits $45bn
...geria cut its trade deficit by a third to $11.2bn in 2017. But dwindling oil output and higher domestic consumption mean that last year’s 23% increase in oil prices only translated into a 16% increase in export revenue. Export revenue continues to almost exclusively mean oil and gas revenue. Hy...
Volume: 61Issue: 04Published at Fri, 26 Jan 2018 -
Iran’s Leadership Moves To Downsize IRGC’s Dominant Role In The Economy
...ash the number of Iranians receiving monthly cash subsidies of $11/person from 71 million to around 41 million (MEES, 15 December 2017). The commission also recommended setting a ceiling of 18% for pay increases; banning increases in tariffs, duties and costs of services provided by some branches of...
Volume: 61Issue: 04Published at Fri, 26 Jan 2018 -
Has Egypt’s Economy Turned The Corner? Time Will Tell
...18 has been a good one for Egypt, with news that revenue from two pillars of its economy, the Suez Canal and tourism, hit three and five-year highs respectively in 2017 (see charts). Tourism revenues collapsed in 2016 to $2.69bn after Moscow issued a travel ban to Egypt in the wake of the No...
Volume: 61Issue: 03Published at Fri, 19 Jan 2018 -
Jordan: Cash Handouts Amidst Reforms
...rough public works and subsidies (see p8). At the same time, the 2018 budget shows the government is attempting cut down its troubling deficit by 28.9% (MEES, 1 December 2017). To accomplish this Jordan is attempting to push through IMF-supported tax hikes intended to halt growing debt. Implementing st...
Volume: 61Issue: 03Published at Fri, 19 Jan 2018 -
Algeria Bans Imports In Latest Move To Curb Deficit
...geria has knocked $2bn off the expected deficit in its final 2018 budget. But the final figure of AD1.914bn ($16.9bn at the budget exchange rate of $1=AD113.5; $16.6bn at the latest actual rate of $1=AD115) still represents a rise of over 70% on an expected 2017 deficit of $9.6bn. Some scope for a su...
Volume: 61Issue: 02Published at Fri, 12 Jan 2018 -
Saudi: $13bn Handouts
...crease in the kingdom’s tax take (MEES, 22 December 2017). Tax revenue was slated to rise by $12bn, thanks to the introduction of VAT at 5% from 1 January as well as a hike to road fuel and electricity prices (MEES, 5 January). But, in the face of popular protest, Saudi Arabia is to counter the im...
Volume: 61Issue: 02Published at Fri, 12 Jan 2018 -
Algeria Forex Reserves Slump Below $100bn For First Time In 10 Years
...ude prices rising by around $10/B over the last three months of 2017. The country’s finance ministry projects that this rate of decline will ease over the coming years, with reserves stabilizing at around $76bn in 2020. The IMF is considerably more bearish – albeit in forecasts made in July, be...
Volume: 61Issue: 01Published at Fri, 05 Jan 2018 -
Saudi Foreign Reserves*
...ARE ON TRACK FOR A $45bn (8.4%) 2017 DRAWDOWN... ...BUT, HAVING FALLEN BELOW $500BN FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2011 IN MAY, THEY HAVE SINCE STABILIZED AT JUST SHY OF THIS LEVEL ($bn) *SAMA NET FOREIGN ASSETS ($BN, END PERIOD). ^FORECAST BASED ON DATA TO END-NOV. SOURCE: SA...
Volume: 61Issue: 01Published at Fri, 05 Jan 2018