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IMF Loan To Egypt Will Need To Be Supplemented With Serious Reforms
...more than a decade (see p16). Egypt has cut its spending on petroleum subsidies by 23% from E£71.5bn in 2014-15 to E£55bn in 2015-16, with a further cut to E£35bn projected in the 2016-17 budget, according to state-oil firm EGPC. ...
Volume: 59Issue: 33Published at Fri, 19 Aug 2016 -
Algeria’s Trade Balance Worsens As Government Ponders Austerity Policy
...ocess looks set to be lengthy. The value of Algerian exports fell by 33% to $12.68bn in the first half of 2016 from $18.93bn in the corresponding period of 2015. This equates to $25.36bn on an annualized basis, down by 33% on 2015 and 60% of 2014 (see table). Oil and gas export earnings in the first si...
Volume: 59Issue: 32Published at Fri, 12 Aug 2016 -
Saudi Reserves Down Again But Deficit Narrows
...Saudi foreign exchange reserves fell to $570bn in June, down 22% from their peak level of $732bn at the end of 2014, as the kingdom continues to raid its savings to maintain investment in its oil and non-oil economies, along with the expense of military operations in neighboring Yemen and in Sy...
Volume: 59Issue: 31Published at Fri, 05 Aug 2016 -
IMF Approves Morocco PLL
...ternal conditions. Morocco’s first PLL arrangement for about $6.21bn was approved in August 2012, while the second one for about $5bn was passed in July 2014 (MEES, 1 August 2014). Commenting on the latest facility, the IMF Deputy Managing Director Mitsuhiro Furusawa said that despite the di...
Volume: 59Issue: 31Published at Fri, 05 Aug 2016 -
Algeria’s Economy: Sinking Fast Despite ‘Titanic Efforts’
...Algeria has been rapidly drawing down its foreign currency reserves: from $194bn at the start of July 2014, just before oil prices started to slide, to $143bn at the end of 2015 and $137bn at the end of May (see chart). Speaking on 15 June, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said that he ex...
Volume: 59Issue: 29Published at Fri, 22 Jul 2016 -
Iran: Payments Start Flowing But Fear Factor Remains
...ese were tightened further in 2011 which led its roughly $420bn economy to shrink by about 9% in the two-year period that ended in March 2014, according to the IMF. From then until January 2016, when sanctions were broadly lifted in return for nuclear curbs, Iran’s ability to continue trading oil pr...
Volume: 59Issue: 27Published at Fri, 08 Jul 2016 -
Kuwait Eyes Short Term $17bn Debt Market Boost; Longer-Term Reform Is Needed
...self was more than twice the KD2.31bn Kuwait ran up in 2014-15, its first deficit since 1999-2000. Last year’s deficit was considerably less than the KD8.18bn deficit it expected to run as recently as February, despite Kuwait’s main crude export stream averaging less than the budgeted price. Mr Sa...
Volume: 59Issue: 27Published at Fri, 08 Jul 2016 -
Oman’s PDO Bags $4bn Loan To Facilitate Bumper $20bn Upstream Plans
...nuary it raised a $1bn loan (priced at 120bp over Libor) to part finance the $8.6bn budget deficit in 2016 (MEES, 22 January). Oman Oil Company (OOC) plans to borrow $1bn to finance the BP operated Khazzan gas project. In September 2014 OOC raised a $1.85bn revolving credit facility put together by lo...
Volume: 59Issue: 26Published at Fri, 01 Jul 2016 -
Qatar Downgrades Growth Forecast, But LNG Revenue Projection Looks Bullish
...l price of $39.3/B. These are both significantly down on the December 2015 estimates: the current account breakeven figure is down by more than a third. Monthly imports in the first two months of the year remained roughly at 2014-2015 levels of $2.5-3bn, with February slightly up year-on-year. Th...
Volume: 59Issue: 25Published at Fri, 24 Jun 2016 -
Egypt Gas: ‘Remarkable Turnaround,’But Not Quite Yet
...21 – the IEA output numbers for the next couple of years look optimistic. The IEA has consistently underestimated Egypt’s near-term output slump. Last year it had Egyptian gas output bottoming out at 50 bcm in 2014, rising to 51 bcm (4.9bn cfd) in 2016: actual output was just 3.96bn cfd in the fi...
Volume: 59Issue: 24Published at Fri, 17 Jun 2016 -
Egypt Revisits IMF Loan As Gulf Aid Slows
...sh injection and subsequent volumes in 2014 and 2015 gave new President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi the breathing space to shun the IMF. But since the start of 2016 attempts by Gulf monarchies to rein in state spending have put a big question mark against continued aid to Egypt, prompting it to again lo...
Volume: 59Issue: 24Published at Fri, 17 Jun 2016 -
US Anti-Hizbollah Sanctions Law Haunts Lebanon’s Banking Sector
...onomy is hampered by a power vacuum and parliament has been unable to elect a head of state to succeed former President Michel Sulaiman, whose term expired in May 2014. The paramilitary group, which is fighting on the side of the Syrian regime, is blamed by many politicians in Lebanon for preventing the el...
Volume: 59Issue: 24Published at Fri, 17 Jun 2016 -
Bonds Away: GCC Countries Tap Markets For $3.5bn As Saudi Waits In Wings
...the onset of the oil price shock in 2014. But it adds that fiscal buffers estimated at around 85% of GDP in 2015 will provide support through the process of fiscal and external adjustment. The agency adds that Oman’s heavy economic and fiscal reliance on the oil and gas sector represent a key cr...
Volume: 59Issue: 24Published at Fri, 17 Jun 2016 -
Taqa Issues $1bn Of Bonds To Refinance Debt
...ints, according to Bloomberg, which cited an unnamed person familiar with the deal. The agency says France’s BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, US’s Citigroup, UK’s HSBC, and UAE’s First Gulf Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi are managing the bond sale. Taqa last tapped the bond market in April 2014...
Volume: 59Issue: 24Published at Fri, 17 Jun 2016 -
Saudi Arabia’s Transformation Plan Already Running Out of Time
...netary Agency (SAMA) 2015 Annual Report put the private sector contribution at 41.1% of GDP in 2014. Growing the private sector is key to the government’s aims of reducing unemployment among Saudis and reducing the public sector wage bill. But key obstacles to previous efforts to increase employment of...
Volume: 59Issue: 23Published at Fri, 10 Jun 2016 -
Iran Struggles To Attract Investment Amid Continued Sanctions, Both Real & Perceived
...clear capability, has had a crippling impact on its economy. After these sanctions were tightened further in 2011, Iran’s roughly $420bn economy shrank by about 9% in the following two-year period that ended in March 2014, according to the IMF. Crude oil exports fell from 2.48mn b/d in 2011 to ju...
Volume: 59Issue: 23Published at Fri, 10 Jun 2016 -
Iraq Plans Eurobond By End-2016
...onomy out of recession despite low oil prices, with real GDP estimated to have risen to 2.4% in 2015 from a contraction of 2.1% in 2014. The bank’s forecast for 2016 is GDP growth of 7.2%. DESPITE RECORD VOLUMES, JAN-MAY IRAQI CRUDE EXPORT REVENUES WERE way BELOW BUDGET *IMPLIED BUDGET TA...
Volume: 59Issue: 23Published at Fri, 10 Jun 2016 -
Egypt Plans Further Cuts To Subsidy Spending
...ypt’s vulnerabilities might increase further over the next 12 months. EGYPT CUTS SPENDING ON ENERGY SUBSIDIES, BUT BY LESS THAN THE FALL IN OIL PRICES (E£ BN) FINANCIAL YEARS ENDING JUNE. *ACTUAL PRICES TO 2014-15. ‘JANUARY 2016’ AND ‘MAY 2016’ USE AVERAGE PRICES FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR TO 20...
Volume: 59Issue: 22Published at Fri, 03 Jun 2016 -
IMF $5.4bn Loan To Iraq Offers Relief For IOCs
...eling by the plunge in oil prices since mid-2014. Oil sales constitute more than 90% of government revenue and in 2014 amounted to $84.3bn from production of 3.3mn b/d. Yet despite output surging to 3.98mn b/d last year, the largest rise in Opec, oil takings collapsed to just 42.7mn b/d (see chart, p2...
Volume: 59Issue: 21Published at Fri, 27 May 2016 -
KRG Hit By Economic Strains And Falling Output At Key Field
...st 72,000 b/d. Taq Taq remains a key export field for the KRG, the largest producer after just Tawke and output from “Khurmala” – a grouping operated by Kurdish firm KAR that includes fields in federal Iraq taken over by the KRG in 2014. Its poor performance is therefore a significant blow to the re...
Volume: 59Issue: 21Published at Fri, 27 May 2016