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Qatar 2016 Budget: $13bn Deficit, The First In 15 Years
...dget law on 16 December. It projects total revenue at QR156bn in 2016, compared to QR226bn in the previous budget, which was based on $65/B (the previous budget, which originally ran from 1 April 2014 to March 2015, was extended pro-rata to end-2015 as Qatar switched to using calendar years in bu...
Volume: 58Issue: 52Published at Wed, 23 Dec 2015 -
Iraq Trims Budget, But Not By Enough
...ving fallen below $30/B. Iraq’s economy has been hammered by the twin shocks of the ongoing conflict with Islamic State and the oil-price crash. Oil revenues constitute the majority of government income, and MEES figures show these crashing to $50.4bn in 2015, down from $84.3bn in 2014 and the lo...
Volume: 58Issue: 51Published at Fri, 18 Dec 2015 -
Egypt Secures $1bn Funding For Gas-Fired power, $500mn For Energy Reforms
...rn natural gas normally and fuel oil during gas shortages. Egypt currently has 20.5GW of mainly gas-fired capacity under development, as EEHC looks to keep ahead of surging electricity demand. This year’s peak load reached 29.1GW, while installed generating capacity at the end of 2014 was 31...
Volume: 58Issue: 51Published at Fri, 18 Dec 2015 -
Egypt Scraps Plan To End Energy Subsidies
...e time of last year’s announcement – says that the government now plans to keep subsidies at 30% of their July 2014 values indefinitely. Speaking in Cairo this week, Mr Isma’il said that circumstances have changed with lower global oil prices and the discovery by Eni of the massive 30 tcf Zohr of...
Volume: 58Issue: 51Published at Fri, 18 Dec 2015 -
Kuwait Mulls Subsidy Reforms As Oil Price Collapse Hurts
...ll require legal changes, would be tackled at a later date. Subsidies cost Kuwait about KD3.7bn ($12.2bn), or 7.6% of GDP in 2014, of which petroleum product subsidies account for 35% (see table). Kuwaiti pre-tax gasoline and diesel prices are respectively 66% and 41% below US prices. They are al...
Volume: 58Issue: 50Published at Fri, 11 Dec 2015 -
Oman’s 2015 Budget Deficit Soars
...rther – to around $40/B for Oman crude – in recent weeks (see p18). Taking these factors into account the deficit for 2015 as a whole could well top OR5bn (see graphs). Oman had a small surplus of OR136mn ($354bn) in the first nine months of 2014 but this fell to a deficit of OR360 for the year as a wh...
Volume: 58Issue: 49Published at Fri, 04 Dec 2015 -
GCC Countries Set For Record Bond Issues To Plug Funding Gap
...With oil prices 60% down on their 2014 peak, GCC member countries are increasingly turning to borrowing to make up for their revenue loss. Bahrain and Qatar are now launching new bonds, and Oman is considering following suit, all three following Saudi Arabia’s lead in July to resort to bo...
Volume: 58Issue: 49Published at Fri, 04 Dec 2015 -
Algeria Ratifies 2016 Budget Despite Opposition
...s export earnings are set to bring in just $35bn this year, down from $60bn for 2014 and $70bn in 2012 (MEES, 27 November). Finance Minister ‘Abd al-Rahman Benkhalfa says the fuel price increase is inevitable as Algiers needs to take an axe to subsidies – which cover everything from energy and ga...
Volume: 58Issue: 49Published at Fri, 04 Dec 2015 -
Algeria Faces Record $14bn Trade Deficit
...29bn in the same period of 2014, according to statistics from Algerian customs. Extrapolating the Jan-October figures to 2015 as a whole gives hydrocarbon export revenue of $36.4bn, down from $60.3bn for 2014 and an all-time record trade deficit of $13bn. It will likely be even worse. This pr...
Volume: 58Issue: 48Published at Fri, 27 Nov 2015 -
Algeria: Present Bad, IEA Figures Indicate Future May Be Worse
...wn from 1.5mn b/d in the 2014 WEO (released Nov 2014) to 1.38mn b/d (950,000 b/d crude and 430,000 b/d condensate/NGLs) in the organization’s Medium Term Oil Market Report in February this year and again to just 1.3mn b/d in the freshly-released 2015 WEO. SERIAL DOWNWARD REVISIONS: IEA WEO FO...
Volume: 58Issue: 48Published at Fri, 27 Nov 2015 -
Lebanese Politicians Pass Essential Financial Laws
...nancial laws which were necessary to keep the country running. A political vacuum has brought the decision making process in the country to a virtual standstill. Lebanon has been without a head of state since President Michel Sulaiman’s term expired in May 2014, and parliament so far has been unable to ag...
Volume: 58Issue: 47Published at Fri, 20 Nov 2015 -
Jordan Budgets For Ambitious 2016 Spending, Revenue Hike
...nefited from project aid from the $5bn GCC development fund set up in December 2011 by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE following the eruption of the Arab Spring, with each country pledging $1.25bn for the kingdom (MEES, 10 May 2013). He notes that this fund has already disbursed JD456mn in 2014...
Volume: 58Issue: 46Published at Fri, 13 Nov 2015 -
S&P Downgrades Saudi, Riyadh Rejects Assessment
...SAUDI ARABIA Ratings agency S&P on 30 October lowered its foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Saudi Arabia one notch to A+/A-1 from AA-/A-1 and kept the outlook negative. S&P says it expects Riyadh’s fiscal deficit to soar from 1.5% of GDP in 2014 to 16% in 2015, “pr...
Volume: 58Issue: 45Published at Fri, 06 Nov 2015 -
Saudi Economy Will Remain Coupled To Oil Prices
...2014-2015^ mn b/d 0.6 0.8 1.4 115 to 47...
Volume: 58Issue: 45Published at Fri, 06 Nov 2015 -
Lebanon Bags Good Terms For $1.6bn Eurobond Despite Geopolitical Headwinds
...stability. Lebanon’s power vacuum has brought the decision making process in the government to a virtual standstill with no measures to deal with key economic decisions. The country has been without a head of state since President Michel Sulaiman’s term expired in May 2014, and parliament has been unable to ag...
Volume: 58Issue: 45Published at Fri, 06 Nov 2015 -
UAE Cuts Federal Budget By 4% For 2016
...d $1.21trillion in total assets as of end-June, up by a healthy $136bn on October 2014, according to the US-based SWF Institute. This is almost 18% of global holdings, the largest single national share. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is by far the UAE’s largest such fund with $773bn in reserve as...
Volume: 58Issue: 44Published at Fri, 30 Oct 2015 -
Oil & Gas Subsidies Costing Saudi 11% Of GDP, Says IMF
...SAUDI ARABIA Oil & Gas Subsidies Costing Saudi 11% Of GDP, Says IMF The implicit cost of subsidized petroleum products and natural gas prices in Saudi Arabia was $83bn or 11.1% of GDP in 2014, the IMF says in a recent paper setting out its arguments for the need for energy price re...
Volume: 58Issue: 43Published at Fri, 23 Oct 2015 -
Iran Unveils Stimulus Package To Boost Growth
...a mere 0.8% for 2015 down from 4.3% for 2014, Mr Rohani’s first full year in office. The country will this year record a fiscal deficit equivalent to 2.9% of GDP, the IMF projects. To be fair to Mr Rohani, the more than halving of oil prices over the last 15 months is largely to blame. The IMF pr...
Volume: 58Issue: 43Published at Fri, 23 Oct 2015 -
Egypt: New Central Bank Chief Faces Foreign Currency Crisis
...e end of 2014-15 by $2bn to $48.1bn. The cost of servicing the external debt – medium and long-term – stood at $5.6bn, of which $4.9bn represents instalment payments and $700mn interest charges. The debt/GDP ratio at the end of 2014-15 fell to 15% from 16.4% the previous year. Domestic debt stood at...
Volume: 58Issue: 43Published at Fri, 23 Oct 2015 -
Egypt: Desperately Seeking Finance
...ere has been a turnaround in economic performance with policies to reign in the budget deficit and the inflow of Gulf cash since mid-2013. But though GDP growth rose to 4.2% for the 2014-15 fiscal year which ended on 30 June, with the IMF projecting 4.3% for the current year, there are serious ch...
Volume: 58Issue: 42Published at Fri, 16 Oct 2015