- Sort by:
- Score
- Published ▼
-
Yemen Oil Revenues Take Nosedive
...ainst former president ‘Ali ‘Abd Allah Salih in early 2011. Even though Mr Salih stepped down in February 2012, attacks have continued with the key aims of putting pressure on the Yemeni leadership to distribute handouts and release previously imprisoned tribesmen, analysts say. Yemen’s main ex...
Volume: 56Issue: 25Published at Fri, 21 Jun 2013 -
Egypt-IMF Talks Edge Forward; Budget Deficit Overshoots
...the first 10 months of financial 2012-13, at E£125.4bn ($17.9bn), appears on target to come in below the projected E£182.8bn ($26.1bn) annual figure and more or less level with 2011-12’s E£150bn; in fact the energy portion is set to undershoot (see graph 2). Energy subsidies – indicated in the fi...
Volume: 56Issue: 24Published at Fri, 14 Jun 2013 -
IMF Approves $1.74Bn Reform Loan For Tunisia
...fficulties and a series of external shocks following the 2011 revolution. It adds that due to a challenging economic environment, as well as regional and domestic tensions, real GDP contracted by 2% in 2011, foreign direct investment and tourism declined by more than 30% year-on-year, and unemployment rose to...
Volume: 56Issue: 24Published at Fri, 14 Jun 2013 -
S&P Upgrades Saudi Sovereign Credit Ratings
...8% for 2012 and 8.5% for 2011 (see graph). Riyadh slams IMF Projections The Saudi government takes exception to these IMF growth numbers, Finance Minister Ibrahim al-‘Assaf told a Riyadh forum at the end of May. He says (unspecified) higher Saudi estimates for 2013 are more ac...
Volume: 56Issue: 23Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2013 -
Yemen To Get $200Mn Aid
...ate energy subsidies, which are as high as 5% of GDP, the main area of concern. The IMF estimates GDP growth at a mere 0.1% in 2012 after shrinking 10.5% in 2011 as a result of the political turmoil in the country. The IMF had earlier said that the government first needs to agree on its economic pr...
Volume: 56Issue: 23Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2013 -
Bahrain Beats Budget Projection
...strengthening of the investment climate, will be the key to restoring high levels of private sector-led growth and the creation of employment for Bahrainis. Given this uncertainty, Bahrain can look forward to benefit from the $10bn aid package pledged by the GCC countries in 2011 for ec...
Volume: 56Issue: 23Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2013 -
IMF Sees Positive Economic Developments In Iraq
...12 from $1,300 in 2004. This favorable IMF assessment comes at a time when violence in Iraq has surged to new highs and Sunni opposition to the Shi’a dominated government has become more pronounced. The IMF notes that fiscal surpluses reached almost 5% of GDP in 2011 and 4% in 2012 as a re...
Volume: 56Issue: 22Published at Fri, 31 May 2013 -
Libya Faces Hurdles Despite Rebound- IMF
...12 as hydrocarbon output was rapidly restored. Inflation fell to 6%. This compares with a 62% fall in GDP in 2011. The 2012 budget recorded a surplus of almost 21% of GDP and the current account surplus widened to 36% of GDP. The fall in hydrocarbon exports in 2011 led to a budget deficit of 15.4% of GD...
Volume: 56Issue: 22Published at Fri, 31 May 2013 -
Kuwait Grants Oman $2.5Bn
...rt of a $20bn GCC funding program pledged by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait, to extend $10bn each to Oman and Bahrain for development projects. The program was approved in March 2011 to ease tensions and promote economic development following pro-democracy uprisings (MEES, 9 May 2011...
Volume: 56Issue: 22Published at Fri, 31 May 2013 -
Lebanese Officials Upbeat Despite Warnings
...P ratio to 133% in 2014 from 130% at present. The IMF expects Lebanon’s fiscal deficit to balloon to 9.7% of GDP from 9% for 2012 and 6.1% for 2011, according to figures contained in its Regional Economic Outlook Update, released this week. Lebanon is rated B with a negative outlook by St...
Volume: 56Issue: 21Published at Fri, 24 May 2013 -
Bahrain’s Economic Outlook Vulnerable To Oil Price Risk, Says IMF
...nsultation. The IMF observed that although economic activity improved following the 2011 downturn, the absence of an enduring solution to the country’s political tension means investment is expected to remain weak. This implies only moderate non-oil growth “below 4% in 2013 and over the medium te...
Volume: 56Issue: 21Published at Fri, 24 May 2013 -
Libya’s 2013 Budget Heading To Surplus
...LIBYA Libya’s 2013 Budget Heading To Surplus The freshly-released details of Libya’s 2013 budget shed some light on how the North African state in transition will spend its money in the year ahead. Whilst the country saw a rapid rebound in oil production after 2011’s re...
Volume: 56Issue: 20Published at Fri, 17 May 2013 -
Calls Mount To Change Saudi Subsidies
...timated in 2011 that Saudi Arabia spends about 20% of its GDP supporting subsidies, including fuel subsidies. This proportion has continued to grow as subsidized prices in turn fuel ever higher demand growth. Stirrings Of Discontent Senior political figures are increasingly speaking out ag...
Volume: 56Issue: 20Published at Fri, 17 May 2013 -
Cairo Reinstates IMF Loan Negotiator
...oducts alone stood at an estimated $1.3bn for the fiscal year 2012-13, up from $1.1bn in 2011-12, according former oil minister Usama Kamal....
Volume: 56Issue: 19Published at Fri, 10 May 2013 -
Kuwait Grants $215Mn For Jordan LNG Terminal
...abia and the UAE, with each of the four countries providing $1.25bn. The fund was set up in December 2011 in the wake of the Arab Spring and its resources are to be disbursed over a five-year period (MEES, 12 April). The first agreement covers a $65mn grant to be used to help part-finance an LN...
Volume: 56Issue: 19Published at Fri, 10 May 2013 -
Syria Estimates Oil Industry Losses At $8.1Bn
... SYRIA Syria Estimates Oil Industry Losses At $8.1Bn Between the beginning of the uprising in March 2011 and the end of February this year the Syrian petroleum sector has sustained a loss in excess of S£73bn ($1.04bn, using an average exchange rate of $1=S£70 fo...
Volume: 56Issue: 18Published at Fri, 03 May 2013 -
IMF: Diversification Key For Sudan With Oil Revenues Imminent
...2mn). “The secession of South Sudan in July 2011 led to a very significant adverse economic shock for Sudan,” the IMF resident representative in Sudan Paul Jenkins tells MEES. “The Sudanese government has taken steps to try and narrow the deficit – largely through compressing capital expenditure and ra...
Volume: 56Issue: 18Published at Fri, 03 May 2013 -
US Ex-Im Proposes More Gulf Funding
...rizons. Ex-Im MENA Exposure ($Mn) 2012* 2011* Algeria 109 147 Bahrain 257 267 Egypt 540 593 Jordan 7 3.2 Ku...
Volume: 56Issue: 18Published at Fri, 03 May 2013 -
EU Eases Syria’s Oil Sanctions
...day eased certain EU sanctions against Syria, including the oil embargo, so as to help the civilian population and support the opposition.” EU sanctions were imposed in 2011 in response to the Asad regime’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests. Sanctions banned exports of key equipment and technology to...
Volume: 56Issue: 17Published at Fri, 26 Apr 2013 -
No Breakthrough In Egypt-IMF Loan Negotiations
...economics, but also depends on politics… You need to restore confidence.” In order to stabilize the level of the Egyptian pound, which has slid from E£5.80 to the dollar at the beginning of 2011 to E£6.90 now, as well as the country’s banking system “a set of economic policies which goes in the di...
Volume: 56Issue: 16Published at Fri, 19 Apr 2013