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Lebanese Economy Resilient Despite External Shocks
...P in 2014. The Central Bank of Lebanon keeps substantial foreign assets of some $47bn which help to maintain confidence in the system – $35bn in foreign currencies and $11.9bn in gold. These reserves, together with foreign direct investment and expatriates’ remittances, provide an important bu...
Volume: 57Issue: 43Published at Fri, 24 Oct 2014 -
Morocco Budget Cuts Subsidies
...MOROCCO Morocco Budget Cuts Subsidies Pursuing its declared policy of reducing the cost of state subsidies, Morocco has announced that its 2015 draft budget will see a 34% cut in subsidies to MD23bn ($2.7bn) from MD35bn in 2014 and MD42bn in 2013. Having peaked in 2012, Morocco be...
Volume: 57Issue: 43Published at Fri, 24 Oct 2014 -
IMF Downgrades MENA, Global 2014-15 Growth Projections
...REGIONAL The IMF has downgraded its projections for global growth this year and next. The MENA region, hit by war, instability, and falling oil prices, sees the biggest downgrade of all. Real GDP growth in the MENA region is projected at 2.6% in 2014 and 3.8% in 2015, a downgrade 0.5 an...
Volume: 57Issue: 42Published at Fri, 17 Oct 2014 -
Egypt Bags More Aid Amid Gaping Budget Deficit
...just over $39bn (see table). As a percentage of GDP the figure is also down from a sky-high 13.7% for 2012-13. For the current July 2014-June 2015 financial year Egypt is budgeting for a further fall in the deficit to E£240bn ($33.7bn), down around 14% in real terms. The Finance Ministry sa...
Volume: 57Issue: 41Published at Fri, 10 Oct 2014 -
Algeria Stares Deficit In The Face
...ALGERIA Algeria’s trade surplus in the first eight months of 2014 has fallen by 20.4% to $4.67bn from $5.87bn in the corresponding period of 2013, official customs statistics show. In 2013 the trade surplus fell to $11.1bn from $21.49bn in 2012. As recently as February the IMF pr...
Volume: 57Issue: 41Published at Fri, 10 Oct 2014 -
Kuwait Boosts Surplus Despite Falling Revenue
...KUWAIT Kuwait increased its budget surplus by 6% to almost KD5bn (KD4.96bn, $17.6bn) for the financial year ending March 2014. This came despite lower oil prices, and thus oil revenue, as the country slashed spending by over 2% to KD18.9bn ($67.1bn). Oil revenues fell by 2.3% to KD...
Volume: 57Issue: 40Published at Fri, 03 Oct 2014 -
Is Iran’s Economy Turning The Corner?
...rst quarter of the current fiscal year (starting on 21 March 2014), compared to the same three-month period a year earlier, CBI preliminary figures show. The growth came after two years of stagflation with GDP which contracting by 4.1% over the year to March 2013. President Hassan Rohani, while in Ne...
Volume: 57Issue: 40Published at Fri, 03 Oct 2014 -
$1.1B Jordan, Lebanon Cash
...JORDAN/LEBANON Jordan is to receive a total of $633mn in four grants from USAID. The largest grant, worth $436mn, will support prioritized development projects listed under the state budget law for 2014. The remaining three grants will be used “to improve basic services, boost economic de...
Volume: 57Issue: 40Published at Fri, 03 Oct 2014 -
Libya: Slashed Oil Exports Leave $16Bn Budget Hole
...asons for this deficit. However the reasons aren’t hard to figure out. The country has been wracked by political instability bordering on civil war for most of the year so far. Oil output for the first eight months of 2014 averaged only 320,000 b/d, and whilst volumes have increased in recent weeks th...
Volume: 57Issue: 39Published at Fri, 26 Sep 2014 -
IMF Calls For Hike In Saudi Energy Prices
...atistics. Crude Volumes Down, Prices Down Too Saudi crude oil exports fell by 2.4%, or 175,000 b/d, to 7.252mn b/d in the first seven months of 2014 from 7.427mn b/d in the corresponding period of 2013. Given that average prices for Saudi crude have also fallen moderately over the same period crude ex...
Volume: 57Issue: 39Published at Fri, 26 Sep 2014 -
Egypt $8.4Bn Suez Funds
...scal year which started on 1 July. Mr Dimian says that Egypt’s GDP grew by 3.5% in Q2 2014. He earlier said he expects Egypt to have a $10-11bn financial shortfall for the current financial year (ending June 2015) and said closing this necessitates boosting growth to 6% and creating jobs to slash un...
Volume: 57Issue: 38Published at Fri, 19 Sep 2014 -
Algeria Maintains High Defense Spending In 2015
....3bn) is up 9.6% on the 2014 budget in nominal terms, following a higher increase still of 15.7% over 2013. The budget allocations for defense spending surged in 2011 by 49.5% over 2010. Total expenditure in the draft bill is projected to increase by 15.7% to AD8,858bn ($112.1bn), while total re...
Volume: 57Issue: 38Published at Fri, 19 Sep 2014 -
Egypt Eyes $12.5bn Powergen Investment
...nistries of petroleum and finance. Egypt’s urban inflation rate rose to 11.5% for the year to August, partly due to the 5 July hike of petroleum product prices by as much as 77%, following the decision to cut petroleum products subsidies in the 2014-15 budget to E£100bn ($14.0bn), in a bid to reduce th...
Volume: 57Issue: 37Published at Fri, 12 Sep 2014 -
Tunisia Eyes Foreign Investment Tonic
...11. The growth rate in the first half of 2014 fell to 2.1%, down on the same period last year, and is insufficient to absorb growing unemployment estimated at 15.7% in 2014. For the Tunisian authorities the main goal of the conference was to restore investor confidence through the government’s “st...
Volume: 57Issue: 37Published at Fri, 12 Sep 2014 -
Algeria Budgets For Higher Spending In 2015
...onomic action” program. GDP growth for 2014 is expected to come at around 4.5%. At the cabinet meeting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said that the state’s efforts to boost growth through government spending should be supported by a stronger contribution to the productive sectors, as well as to the di...
Volume: 57Issue: 36Published at Fri, 05 Sep 2014 -
Syria Eyes Iran For More Aid
...ria’s oil production from government controlled fields has fallen in the first half of 2014 to around 4.4% of its pre-war level of 385,000 b/d. IS alone is reported to control up to 60% of Syria’s oil output from the captured fields; although, whilst IS is producing and exporting crude (and selling vo...
Volume: 57Issue: 36Published at Fri, 05 Sep 2014 -
IMF Releases $217Mn For Tunisia
...ansition with the advent of elections in the last quarter of 2014,” but he warns the economic situation remains difficult, with timid growth, high unemployment, and rising external imbalances which are piling pressure on the exchange rate and reserves. “Program implementation is strong” with “all qu...
Volume: 57Issue: 36Published at Fri, 05 Sep 2014 -
Saudi Arabia Advances Stock Market Opening
...rket participants – can criticize the regulatory framework and suggest modifications. This framework is therefore likely to be amended in light of the feedback the CMA receives in the three-month period ending on 20 November 2014. The CMA regulations published on its website on 21 August stipulate th...
Volume: 57Issue: 35Published at Fri, 29 Aug 2014 -
Iran Stimulus Plan Approved As Debt Piles Up
...an (CBI) showed that GDP contracted by 1.9% in the Iranian year 1392 (March 2013-March 2014). In the preceding year, the growth rate was negative at 6.8%. The stimulus plan identifies several obstacles to economic revival, namely a shortage of financial resources, low domestic demand, falling in...
Volume: 57Issue: 34Published at Fri, 22 Aug 2014 -
Kuwait Unveils New Five-Year Development Plan
...e new plan. As of January 2014, the Kuwait government had spent only 57% of the allocated expenditure in the current plan. Kuwait’s development process has suffered in the past few years from the absence of decision making, given the ongoing political bickering between the government and parliament. Fr...
Volume: 57Issue: 34Published at Fri, 22 Aug 2014