- Sort by:
- Score
- Published ▼
-
Saudi Arabia Prioritizes Investment Despite Budget Deficits
...rging by $34.5bn to a five-year high of $65.3bn, preliminary Ministry of Finance figures show (see table). This is more than double the originally budgeted figure of $26.9bn. Having run just one budget surplus since 2014, government debt levels have been on the rise in recent years. From just $38bn in...
Volume: 68Issue: 49Published at Fri, 05 Dec 2025 -
Saudi Arabia Doubles Deficit Forecast For 2025
...reseeable future, but strong economic growth in recent years means that as a share of GDP, the deficits are expected to be considerably less than over the 2014-2020 period. By way of comparison, this year’s forecast $65.3bn deficit is comparable with 2017’s $63.6bn figure. But while the 2017 deficit was eq...
Volume: 68Issue: 40Published at Fri, 03 Oct 2025 -
Algeria Facing Fiscal Vulnerabilities Despite Recovery, IMF Warns
...y risks that include “global trade disruptions, conflicts including in the Middle East, and related commodity price volatility,” among others. 1: ALGERIA’S OIL OUTPUT IS DOWN 300,000 B/D SINCE THE LAST BID ROUND IN 2014, WITH THE FALL ONLY PARTLY DUE TO OPEC+ OUTPUT RESTRICTIONS* (‘00...
Volume: 68Issue: 39Published at Fri, 26 Sep 2025 -
Gulf NOCs Tap Into World-Leading US LNG Sector
...amco in the race. Indeed, QatarEnergy was by far the earliest mover, having agreed in 2014 to convert its Golden Pass LNG import terminal (QatarEnergy 70%, ExxonMobil 30%) into an export terminal (MEES, 11 July 2014). More than a decade later, Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad al-Ka...
Volume: 68Issue: 20Published at Fri, 16 May 2025 -
Saudi Budget Deficit Swells To Largest Since 2021
...er the same period, despite capital investments falling by $1.8bn to a two-year low of $7.4bn. These all combined to push the budget deficit up to $15.7bn, which was the highest quarterly figure since 4Q 2021’s $18.2bn. Indeed, it is the worst start to the year since 2016, at the height of the 2014...
Volume: 68Issue: 19Published at Fri, 09 May 2025 -
Egypt To List Military-Owned Companies for Sale In Renewed Privatization Drive
...power in 2014. And just last week, the military-owned Mostakbal Misr Agency for Sustainable Development took over Egypt’s import of strategic commodities, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The agency replaces the state-owned General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), which has fo...
Volume: 67Issue: 50Published at Fri, 13 Dec 2024 -
Saudi Arabia Revises Down Mid-Term Revenue Expectations
...ands at $96.20/B, with speculation that this means the kingdom needs to target an oil price of around $100/B (MEES, 27 September). What this ignores is that Saudi Arabia has only achieved a surplus once since 2014 – during 2022 when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted oil markets (see chart 1) – and ye...
Volume: 67Issue: 40Published at Fri, 04 Oct 2024 -
Cairo Advances Subsidy Cuts But Will They Outpace Inflation?
...nth, as the government announced the new bread prices, PM Moustafa Madbouly said that the Electricity Ministry was developing a plan to completely phase out electricity subsidies over the coming four years, the latest in a series of extensions since the initial plan was set out in 2014 (MEES, 24 Oc...
Volume: 67Issue: 26Published at Fri, 28 Jun 2024 -
Libya: SLB’s Quit Threat Could Send Output Gains Into Reverse
...talEnergies of France. This was for a three-year contract to deploy an “express” early production facility (EPF) at the Sirte Basin’s Mabruk field which has been shut-in since surface facilities were badly damaged by Islamic State-affiliated militants in December 2014 (MEES, 6 March 2015). SLB says the Ma...
Volume: 67Issue: 24Published at Fri, 14 Jun 2024 -
Opec Revenues Fall By $160bn In 2023
...op, revenues were still the second highest on an annual basis since 2014. Last year saw the market stabilize following the disruption caused by Russia’s early-2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russian supply proved robust, US output boomed, and demand growth was historically strong at more than 2mn b/d. But su...
Volume: 67Issue: 13Published at Fri, 29 Mar 2024 -
Qatar Trade Revenues Fall From 2022 High
...Qatar’s exceptional 2022 revenues from record oil and gas prices subsided in 2023 but its $66bn trade surplus was still the second highest since 2014. With a clear path to further hike earnings, Doha has snagged a credit rating upgrade. Like most hydrocarbon producers Qatar made ex...
Volume: 67Issue: 05Published at Fri, 02 Feb 2024 -
Yemen: New Import Hub Increases Houthi Economic Control
...port terminal. STRATEGIC LOCATION Ras Issa sits in a strategic bay on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. It has traditionally been the country’s primary export terminal, receiving crude oil from the Marib Basin via a 110,000 b/d pipeline. But with the onset of civil war in 2014, targeted sabotage of th...
Volume: 66Issue: 44Published at Fri, 03 Nov 2023 -
Saudi Oil Export Revenues On Course For 25% Annual Drop
...ole, MEES estimates that oil revenues are on course to total $245-250bn. Although this is down significantly from last year’s bumper $327bn, it remains a historically high figure. With the exception of 2022, this would be the highest annual figure since 2014 (see chart 2). 2024: SUBJECT TO MA...
Volume: 66Issue: 48Published at Wed, 01 Nov 2023 -
Hopes For Libyan Unity Fade In Wake Of Flooding Disaster
...untry’s east since 2014 (MEES, 22 May 2020), the flooding disaster has offered an opportunity to leverage the new state of emergency to empower his sons and support their political ambitions, further strengthening the Haftar family’s grip on eastern Libya. The ailing 79-year-old patriarch, who an...
Volume: 66Issue: 41Published at Fri, 13 Oct 2023 -
Oman Wields Oil Profits To Slash Debt In Fiscal Reform Push
...in shocks of the 2014-15 oil price crash and then the Covid-19 pandemic, the recently enthroned Sultan Haitham bin Tarik Al Said at the end of 2020 moved ahead with a series of reform packages to reorient the national economy (MEES, 17 September 2021). Oman is now more than halfway through the Medium Te...
Volume: 66Issue: 39Published at Fri, 29 Sep 2023 -
Asian LNG Imports: China Drives Demand Despite Record Overland Russia Volumes
...21 (30.1mn tons) came much more recently than that of Japan (88.51mn tons in 2014), the recent trend has been similar. Korea has reversed previous plans to phase-out nuclear power and as a result LNG is set to play a lower-than-previously-envisaged role in the country’s powergen mix. For 8M 2023 Ko...
Volume: 66Issue: 38Published at Fri, 22 Sep 2023 -
Turkey Claims Iraq Owes Nearly $1bn In Net Arbitration Damages
...accrue further interest until payment, or amicable resolution. Turkey’s claim is that “Iraq’s damages date from 2014 to 2018 – a period of relatively low [Turkish] bond yields,” and therefore “far more interest has accrued on Türkiye’s damages” which date back to 1990 until 2011. Based on...
Volume: 66Issue: 37Published at Fri, 15 Sep 2023 -
Softening Oil Sector Puts Brakes On Saudi Growth
...in Q2 according to preliminary government figures, to 5.5% from Q1’s 5.4%. It has now notched up five consecutive quarters above 5% for the first time since 2014. However, given the extent to which the economy is dominated by the oil and gas sector – which is itself undergoing an extensive ca...
Volume: 66Issue: 31Published at Fri, 04 Aug 2023 -
Kuwait’s Four Year Government Program Gets Little Support
...position-led assembly, only a handful of MPs showed support, rendering the passage of the approximately 30 proposed laws questionable. One law in particular saw almost unanimous opposition – the contentious Debt Law. Kuwait ran a series of eight consecutive budget deficits (see chart) between 2014/15 an...
Volume: 66Issue: 30Published at Fri, 28 Jul 2023 -
Algeria Oil & Gas Revenues Fall Back From Record 2022
...*Algerian state firm Sonatrach earned $21bn in oil and gas export revenues for the first five months of 2023. On an annualized basis this equates to $50.8bn, well down from 2022’s 9-year high $60bn, but is still the second highest since energy prices tanked in late 2014 (see ch...
Volume: 66Issue: 28Published at Fri, 14 Jul 2023