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Saudi 2030 Plans: Turning The Vision Into Reality
...ort-term benefit is the generation of revenue, which will help reduce concerns over the pace at which foreign exchange reserves are being drawn down and government debt is towering up. Foreign Reserves dropped from a peak of $731bn in August 2014 to $576bn as of March 2016. Moody’s forecast reserves de...
Volume: 59Issue: 20Published at Fri, 20 May 2016 -
Iran Gets Sound Advice From IMF, But Will It Be Heeded?
...e Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Valliolah Seif, liquidity rose by 30% in 2014 from 23% in 2013. Mr Seif says that under sanctions Iran’s banks failed to keep up with their international peers: they need to reintegrate and comply with international standards. The government and CBI intend to su...
Volume: 59Issue: 20Published at Fri, 20 May 2016 -
Total, Eni, Shell Downgraded; BP Escapes
...Moody’s downgraded its credit ratings on four of the seven international oil majors in late March and early April following a review started 22 January in the light of the 60%-plus oil price collapse since mid 2014. France’s Total had its rating cut by two notches to Aa3 with the co...
Volume: 59Issue: 17Published at Fri, 29 Apr 2016 -
Japanese Banks Plug The Financing Gap Amid Tightening Gulf Liquidity
...ring 2014 to around 3% during 2015 and we expect liquidity to remain tight over 2016,” it adds. GULF BANKS LOSS, ASIAN BANKS GAIN But this change in fortune for GCC banks is creating the opportunity for foreign banks to regain lost ground in the region’s financial sector where Gulf lenders had do...
Volume: 59Issue: 17Published at Fri, 29 Apr 2016 -
Saudi Wraps Up $10bn Loan
...s aimed at countering its dwindling oil revenues which has led Saudi Arabia to draw on roughly $150bn in financial reserves since late 2014, with reserves standing at $593bn as of end-February (see chart). According to the FT, bankers close to the deal said it had priced at around 120 basis points ov...
Volume: 59Issue: 17Published at Fri, 29 Apr 2016 -
Egypt: UAE Joins Saudi In Bolstering Sisi With $4bn In Aid
...om E£37.7bn in the current year 2015-16. The cut in energy subsidies will be resented by consumers as was the case in July 2014, when petroleum product prices where hiked by up to 78%. The 2016-17 budget is based on an oil price assumption of $40/B and an official exchange rate of $1=E£9. But the va...
Volume: 59Issue: 17Published at Fri, 29 Apr 2016 -
Saudi Plans $10bn Loan, First Since 1991
...ternational borrowing by Saudi Arabia, combined with the domestic debt issuance could push the general government debt to 9.4% of GDP in 2017, compared to 1.5% in 2014, due to the plunge in oil prices. Longer term, the issue of international sovereign debt will support the development of a market for Sa...
Volume: 59Issue: 16Published at Fri, 22 Apr 2016 -
Lebanon: $1bn Bond Success
...ate since President Michel Sulaiman’s term expired in May 2014, with parliament unable to agree on a successor. Political and economic relations between the GCC countries and Lebanon have also worsened: the GCC accuses Shia militia-come-party Hizbollah of terrorism. Hizbollah is part of the Le...
Volume: 59Issue: 16Published at Fri, 22 Apr 2016 -
Algeria Oil & Gas Revenues Collapse Further
...Algerian customs data for the first two months of 2016 show that the country’s earnings from oil and gas exports are on target to be just 40% of 2014 levels. Total exports for the first two months of 2016 were worth just $4.19bn, $25.6bn on an annualized basis, down from $62.9bn for 2014 an...
Volume: 59Issue: 16Published at Fri, 22 Apr 2016 -
$22bn In Saudi Cash And Products To Keep Egypt Afloat
...ypt obviously missed Prime Minister (then Oil Minister) Sharif Ismail’s target of paying off the dues by end-2015 (MEES, 28 November 2014), things had at least been moving in the right direction. If the $20bn figure attached to Saudi Arabia’s five-year oil products supply deal is correct then this is...
Volume: 59Issue: 14Published at Fri, 08 Apr 2016 -
Saudi Crown Prince Plots $2,000bn Mega Wealth Fund
...oil prices and with them Saudi revenue since late 2014, where the cash will come from. King Salman, who took power in 2015, has allowed his favorite son Muhammad to grasp many of the kingdom’s key reins of power. His mooted economic policies are revolutionary given Saudi Arabia’s conservative an...
Volume: 59Issue: 14Published at Fri, 08 Apr 2016 -
Egypt Unveils Development Plan To Revive The Economy
...nance development projects on the Sinai Peninsula (MEES, 25 March). Gulf countries have been keen to give their assistance to Egypt following the 2013 ouster of former President Muhammad Mursi and have pledged more than $20bn in aid and products since March 2014. Mr Isma’il urged parliament to co...
Volume: 59Issue: 13Published at Fri, 01 Apr 2016 -
Iran-Pakistan Trade Boost But Gas Line Still Far Off
...initiate work on its side." Pakistan was to import 750mn cfd (8.2 bcm/year) of Iranian gas from December 2014, but Pakistan claims that nuclear-sanctions on Iran prevented it from raising project finance. With Iran now released from the majority of sanctions, prospects for completion appear to ha...
Volume: 59Issue: 13Published at Fri, 01 Apr 2016 -
Kuwait Trade Surplus Collapse
...a 3% fall in production as Kuwait was hit by the progressive outage from late 2014 of production from the Neutral Zone it shares with Saudi Arabia (see p4). In dollar terms oil revenue was down by 48% at $48.7bn, a mere 45% of 2013 takings. And things could get worse. For the first three months of...
Volume: 59Issue: 13Published at Fri, 01 Apr 2016 -
Iraq Oil Revenue Falls To New 7-Year Low
...TO THOSE OF THE CBI DURING 2014 (MEES, 20 MARCH 2015). SOURCE: IMF, CBI....
Volume: 59Issue: 12Published at Fri, 25 Mar 2016 -
Jordan Strains Under Demographic, Fiscal Pressure
...pulation is increasing, the freshly-released results of Jordan’s first national census in 11 years were still startling. The census included not only citizens but also foreign residents, and reported that Jordan’s total resident population is now 9,531,712, compared to the World Bank’s 2014 estimate of 6,...
Volume: 59Issue: 12Published at Fri, 25 Mar 2016 -
Jordan’s Fiscal Situation Grim, Debt Nears 100% Of GDP
...dgeted for foreign grants of JD 1.13bn (which in turn was down on the 2014 actual figure) only for actual 2015 grants to come in JD 240mn lower. Jordan has blamed the shortfall on Qatar’s failure to stump up previously-pledged funds (MEES, 13 November 2015). Jordan is currently hosting around 1.5mn Sy...
Volume: 59Issue: 12Published at Fri, 25 Mar 2016 -
Oman Presses On With Key Energy Projects Despite Revenue Slump
...om six countries contributed to the Liwa financing (see table). Oman has sought to project an image of ‘business as usual’ on energy projects despite the precipitous 70% fall in oil export earnings from an all-time record of $2.98bn in July 2014 to an implied $753mn in January, when the front-mo...
Volume: 59Issue: 11Published at Fri, 18 Mar 2016 -
Kuwait Plans Economic Reforms In Light Of Revenue Collapse
...tributed to the fact that Kuwait is highly dependent on hydrocarbons to drive economic growth and to finance state expenditure, with oil and gas accounting for 90% of total goods exports and roughly 63% of nominal GDP in 2014. Also hydrocarbon revenue accounts to around 77% of total government re...
Volume: 59Issue: 11Published at Fri, 18 Mar 2016 -
Egypt Devalues Currency: Will It Bring Stability?
...ars are overdone given that the market is already pricing imported products at the black market exchange rate. Egyptian inflation spiked after July 2014, following major cuts in energy subsidies which led petroleum product prices to soar: by 64% for diesel and kerosene, 88% for 80 Octane gasoline an...
Volume: 59Issue: 11Published at Fri, 18 Mar 2016