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Morocco Advances Subsidy Reform
...with an earlier 2012 PLL, the Moroccan authorities say they intend to treat this arrangement as precautionary, and have no plans to draw on it, unless the country experiences actual balance of payments needs from a deterioration of external conditions. Morocco’s fiscal deficit fell in 2014 to 4....
Volume: 58Issue: 07Published at Fri, 13 Feb 2015 -
Iraq’s 2015 Budget: A Catalyst For Better Relations With Erbil
...der the budget law all revenue derived from these exports will be considered as revenue for the Iraqi federal treasury. Based on these projections oil revenue in the budget is put at ID78,649bn ($67.5bn), or 83.6% of total revenue. Kuwait’s agreement at the end of 2014 to give Iraq a one-year su...
Volume: 58Issue: 06Published at Fri, 06 Feb 2015 -
Syria’s Economic Woes Only Set To Intensify
...oduction in the government-controlled areas in 2014 slumped to 9,329 b/d, the Syrian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sulaiman al-‘Abbas announced this week. This output is a mere 2.4% of average production of 385,000 b/d before the start of the uprising in March 2011 (MEES, 8 August 2011). In th...
Volume: 58Issue: 05Published at Fri, 30 Jan 2015 -
Lebanon Plans $1Bn Eurobond
...w debt. But latest official statistics show that the budget deficit up to September 2014 fell to $2.23bn, or 21.93% of spending, compared to $3.31bn, or 31.89% of expenditure, in the corresponding period of 2013. A rise in tax revenues and receivables from treasury operations in the first nine mo...
Volume: 58Issue: 05Published at Fri, 30 Jan 2015 -
Kuwait Slashes 2015-16 Budget Expenditure, With Oil Revenue Down 46%
...sterity and rationalization of expenditure, in the wake of the 55%-plus plunge in oil prices since June 2014. But despite the resulting fall in oil revenues, this budget is development-oriented, Finance Minister Anas al-Salih said in a press conference this week, and puts a special emphasis on education, he...
Volume: 58Issue: 05Published at Fri, 30 Jan 2015 -
IMF Projects GCC Hydrocarbons Export Losses At $300Bn
...nthly update of its Regional Economic Outlook (REO), released this week, says that while the Gulf’s key oil exporters will feel the heat from the more than halving of oil prices from $110/B in June 2014 to $45-50/B now, the region’s oil importers will benefit from lower energy import bills, which could he...
Volume: 58Issue: 04Published at Fri, 23 Jan 2015 -
MENA Youth Unemployment Chronic-ILO
...tlook Trends 2015, released 20 January, says the Middle East and North Africa have the highest unemployment rates of any global region. The rate for North Africa was 12.5% for 2014, and that for the Middle East 11%, both higher even than the crisis-hit EU (10.2%). Both are set to stay top of the ra...
Volume: 58Issue: 04Published at Fri, 23 Jan 2015 -
Egypt To Tap Bond Market
...EGYPT Egypt To Tap Bond Market Cash-strapped Egypt is planning to tap the Eurobond market in April with a $1.5bn issue to help plug a 2014-15 budget deficit of around E£240bn ($33bn), or 10 % of GDP. Finance Minister Hany Dimian says the issue will test the market for future bo...
Volume: 58Issue: 04Published at Fri, 23 Jan 2015 -
Iran Banks On Taxes, Not Oil, To Fuel 2015-16 Budget
...ich calls for the taxation of religious foundations and military-linked companies – an unprecedented measure, if it could be implemented (MEES, 12 December 2014). Past calls to tax the “bonyads”, or state welfare entities controlled by the religious theocracy or the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, have go...
Volume: 58Issue: 04Published at Fri, 23 Jan 2015 -
Kuwait Development Plan Based On $45/B Oil
...il project linking the GCC states; a media city; construction of the Al-Zour-2 power generation project and Al-Zour refinery, a refinery and petrochemical complex in China, and a petrochemical complex in Vietnam (MEES, 22 August 2014). Kuwait has not been successful with the implementation of its KD...
Volume: 58Issue: 03Published at Fri, 16 Jan 2015 -
Iran Mulls $40/B Oil
...rliament the draft budget law is sent to the Council of Guardians for the final green light. Iran is burdened by international sanctions which have restricted the export of oil to around 1.2mn b/d (including condensate) since mid-2014 (MEES, 12 December 2014). Earlier in the week President Hassan Ro...
Volume: 58Issue: 03Published at Fri, 16 Jan 2015 -
Iraq’s Budget Debate Stalls Over Oil Price
...endments before a vote in parliament due on 20 January. However, given the Iraqi assembly’s history, a further delay cannot be ruled out. The calculations are also complicated by the absence of a 2014 budget, which was never passed largely because of a dispute with the KRG at the time over revenue-sharing an...
Volume: 58Issue: 03Published at Fri, 16 Jan 2015 -
Algeria Ignores Storm Clouds With 2015 Budget
...4,685bn ($59.3bn), with a resulting deficit of AD4,173bn ($52.8bn), or 22.1% of GDP, an increase of 17.8% on the 2014 deficit (see table). The budget law projects an overall GDP growth rate of 3.4% to AD18,191bn ($230.2bn) in 2015, with the non-oil GDP rising by 4.25%, compared to an overall growth rate of 4....
Volume: 58Issue: 03Published at Fri, 16 Jan 2015 -
Saudi Growth Slashed
...SAUDI ARABIA Saudi Growth Slashed Saudi GDP growth is expected to fall to 2.5% in 2015 from 3.7% in 2014, mainly due to an anticipated contraction in the oil sector by 0.6%, Jadwa Investment said in its latest update on the Saudi economy. Oil revenue will decline in 2015, but the re...
Volume: 58Issue: 03Published at Fri, 16 Jan 2015 -
Egypt To Borrow $1.5Bn
...maining debt of $500mn still owed to Qatar is to be repaid in the second half of 2015, the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt Hisham Ramiz had said (MEES, 5 December 2014). Egypt’s finances would have been much worse without the massive aid packages of some $12bn from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UA...
Volume: 58Issue: 02Published at Fri, 09 Jan 2015 -
Fitch Upgrades Egypt
...duced, the investment laws are revised and disputes with foreign investors settled. Fitch also says that economic growth is picking up, with year-on-year growth rising to a provisional 6.8% in 3Q 2014, the highest since 2008, from 3.7% in 2Q 2014. Consumption and investment have led to growth driven by...
Volume: 58Issue: 02Published at Fri, 09 Jan 2015 -
Dubai 2015 Budget
...UAE Dubai 2015 Budget Dubai has announced a record balanced budget of Dh41bn ($11.2bn) for 2015, up by 9% in nominal terms from 2014, which projected a deficit of Dh882mn ($240mn). The budget will continue to stimulate growth and prioritize social services, despite the collapse in oi...
Volume: 58Issue: 02Published at Fri, 09 Jan 2015 -
Oman Slashes Spending For 2015, But Will More Cuts Be Needed?
...ice for Oman crude, $30/B above current levels. Muscat will likely be forced to raid its relatively-limited foreign reserves. Oman’s 2015 budget, released on 1 January, envisages total spending of OR14.1bn ($36.7bn at OR1=$2.60), compared to actual 2014 spending of OR14.5bn ($37.7bn), based on pr...
Volume: 58Issue: 02Published at Fri, 09 Jan 2015 -
Saudi Arabia Budgets For $39Bn 2015 Deficit Despite Spending Cut
...dget, unveiled by the Saudi cabinet on 25 December. The 2015 budget projects revenue at SR715bn ($190.7bn), with spending of SR860bn ($229.3bn) planned. The former is down by 33% in real terms on the latest official estimate of actual 2014 revenue, while the latter represents a 24% real terms cut: th...
Volume: 58Issue: 01Published at Fri, 02 Jan 2015 -
Algeria: OPEC Must Cut
...ow that the trade balance in the first 11 months of the year has fallen to $5.37bn from $8.87bn in the corresponding period of 2013. The value of exports in 11 months of 2014 fell slightly to $58.67bn from $59.07bn in the same period of 2013, while the value of imports was up to $53.29bn in 11 mo...
Volume: 58Issue: 01Published at Fri, 02 Jan 2015