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Saudi Arabia Faces 20% Fiscal Deficit
...venues, the IMF said this week. Local investment bank NCB, in a report also issued this week, forecasts a deficit of $20.6bn for 2015. NCB notes that this is the first deficit since 1998 and contrasts with an $81.2bn surplus for 2014. With the kingdom, and Opec, sticking with a strategy of maximizing it...
Volume: 58Issue: 23Published at Fri, 05 Jun 2015 -
Algerian PM Toughens Tone On Economy, Sonatrach Chief Pressed To Boost Output
...me period a year earlier. The lower exports weighed significantly on the trade balance which recorded a deficit of $4.32bn for January-April 2014, against a surplus of $3.4bn during the equivalent period in 2014. Total exports fell 41% to $13.4bn, with non-hydrocarbon exports accounting for $866mn, or...
Volume: 58Issue: 22Published at Fri, 29 May 2015 -
Cornered Tehran Ups Gas, Gasoline Prices To Ease Cash-Crunch
...clear deal in the coming weeks – for now at least, Iran appears more focused on identifying solutions from within: specifically, by further trimming its energy subsidy bill, which was estimated at upwards of $50bn in the last Iranian year (March 2014-March 2015). As of midnight on 26 May, Iran hi...
Volume: 58Issue: 22Published at Fri, 29 May 2015 -
KNPC Seeks Ideas, Finance For Refinery Projects
...ocurement and construction (EPC) contracts worth a combined $12bn for projects to upgrade the existing 270,000 b/d Mina Abdullah and 466,000 b/d Mina al-Ahmadi refineries, while expanding the former and reducing the latter to give a combined crude distillation capacity of 800,000 b/d (MEES, 14 February 2014...
Volume: 58Issue: 22Published at Fri, 29 May 2015 -
Morocco Solar Funds
...tober). Morocco also has coal-fired plans totaling 1.64GW under development. For these Morocco secured $290mn from China Exim Bank (320MW at Jerada), while a 1.39GW plant at Safi was backed by $2.6bn project finance led by France’s Engie (MEES 10 October 2014). Morocco’s next big funding requirement ma...
Volume: 58Issue: 22Published at Fri, 29 May 2015 -
IMF Warns Of Precarious Fiscal Outlook For Oman
...th the sultanate. Increased spending, particularly in response to social demands over the four years to 2014, has pushed the country’s breakeven oil price to $108/B in 2014, the IMF says. Based on an average oil price of $58.1/B for the year, the IMF has forecast Oman’s overall fiscal de...
Volume: 58Issue: 21Published at Fri, 22 May 2015 -
Orpic Seals $0.9bn Financing For $7bn Projects Program
...ternational and national lenders (MEES, 9 May 2014). Orpic held a groundbreaking ceremony for the SRIP project last June, at which Orpic chief Musab al-Mahruqi said the aim of the project – which will add 81,000 b/d to Sohar’s current 116,000 b/d crude processing capacity and more upgrading capacity – is to...
Volume: 58Issue: 21Published at Fri, 22 May 2015 -
Egypt’s Deficit Up
...EGYPT Egypt’s Deficit Up Egypt posted a budget deficit of E£218.3bn ($28.7bn), or 9.4% of GDP, for first nine months of fiscal year 2014-15 (July 2014 to March 2015), up from E£145bn, or 7.3% of GDP, in the corresponding period of 2013-14, Egypt’s Ministry of Finance said in its Ap...
Volume: 58Issue: 20Published at Fri, 15 May 2015 -
Libya Could Run Out Of Cash Sooner Rather Than Later
...stitutions. Libya foreign exchange reserves plunged by a quarter in 2014. Without an upturn in oil earnings the country could run out of reserves in two years, according to a report by the Libyan Audit Bureau (LAB). And if oil production fails to increase in the coming months, even this could be optimistic, ac...
Volume: 58Issue: 20Published at Fri, 15 May 2015 -
Bahrain 2015-16 Budget Deficit Soars
...nsolidation and to focus on gradually “retargeting subsidies to the lower income segments of the population,” the IMF said last year (MEES, 27 June 2014). The Bahraini authorities earlier in 2015 announced an increase of 11% in natural gas prices for industrial users and employee medical insurance fees, th...
Volume: 58Issue: 20Published at Fri, 15 May 2015 -
Saudi Reserves Down $50Bn Amid Bonus Payouts
...esent low levels in the mid-term. Total Saudi reserves, $732bn at the end of 2014, rose slightly to $734bn a month later before falling to $714bn at end-February and $698bn in March, according to SAMA’s Monthly Statistical Bulletin for March 2015. Reserves peaked in September 2014 at $746bn. Af...
Volume: 58Issue: 19Published at Fri, 08 May 2015 -
Iranian Officials Highlight Scourge Of Corruption
...2014 to 12.3% in 2015 and 13.2% in 2016, according to the IMF’s April 2015 World Economic Outlook. The speaker of the Iranian parliament Ali Larijani said this week that 42% of Iranian university graduates are unemployed. ...
Volume: 58Issue: 18Published at Fri, 01 May 2015 -
Jordan Taps IMF Funds
...versification efforts, will ease pressure on Jordan’s public finances and help contain the current account deficit. Also lower oil prices will help to boost Jordan’s growth prospects. But the switch to imported oil from cheaper Egyptian gas (disrupted since 2012, and reduced to a trickle of only 30mn cfd in 2014...
Volume: 58Issue: 18Published at Fri, 01 May 2015 -
Saudi Bourse To Open To Foreign Investors in June
...ades stocks in 168 Saudi companies, for which the value of shares traded in 2014 amounted to SR2.15 trillion ($573bn). CMA President Muhammad al-Jad’an said on 22 April that this opening to foreign investors will make the Saudi stock exchange part of the wider global market and noted that Saudi Ar...
Volume: 58Issue: 17Published at Fri, 24 Apr 2015 -
Jadwa Lowers Saudi Oil Price Forecast, Predicts Further Fundraising
...SAUDI ARABIA Jadwa Lowers Saudi Oil Price Forecast, Predicts Further Fundraising Saudi investment bank Jadwa has lowered its forecast 2015 price for Saudi crude to $57/B, whilst raising its production forecast to 9.8mn b/d. Though 100,000 b/d higher than actual 2014 output, this is ac...
Volume: 58Issue: 16Published at Fri, 17 Apr 2015 -
IMF Warns Qatar Of Budget Deficit
...date says the non-hydrocarbon sector recorded an 11.5% expansion in 2014, with the largest contributors consisting of construction, finance, insurance, real estate and business services, trade, hotels and restaurants. QNB expects double-digit growth in the non-hydrocarbon sector until 2018, while in th...
Volume: 58Issue: 16Published at Fri, 17 Apr 2015 -
Algeria Oil Cash Down
...ALGERIA Algeria Oil Cash Down Algeria’s fiscal oil and gas revenue in 2014 fell to AD3,388.3bn ($42.4bn), from AD3,678.1bn ($48.4bn) in 2013, according to recently-released Finance Ministry figures. Of 2014 revenues AD1,577.7bn ($19.7bn) was allocated to the budget and AD1,810.6bn ($22...
Volume: 58Issue: 16Published at Fri, 17 Apr 2015 -
After Iran’s Nuclear Deal, Economic Reforms Are A Must
...the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook (WEO), released this week, Iran’s real GDP growth is projected to grow by 0.6% in 2015, and 1.3% in 2016 – a downward revision from October 2014, mainly due to the fall in oil prices, and uncertainty about the progress towards a full nuclear deal. Fo...
Volume: 58Issue: 16Published at Fri, 17 Apr 2015 -
Egypt’s Economy: Still A Long Road To Recovery
...pects the general government deficit to decline to around 10% of GDP between July 2014 and June 2015. The IMF, in its January 2015 report on Egypt, says the deficit eased to 13.6% of GDP for 2013-14 having peaked at 14.1% the year before. Moody’s predicts that the deficit will decrease further to around 9....
Volume: 58Issue: 16Published at Fri, 17 Apr 2015 -
Kuwaiti Fund In Rare Overseas Energy Investment
...rely on commercial merit rather than the state’s political or foreign policy interests. According to the latest rankings published by the US-based SWF Institute (SWFI), KIA holdings were up by 68% year-on-year at $548bn as of October 2014. The UAE’s Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) came in as th...
Volume: 58Issue: 15Published at Fri, 10 Apr 2015