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Saudi Set For $28bn 2014 Surplus
...SAUDI ARABIA Having penciled in a balanced budget, Saudi Arabia is set to post a surplus of SR104bn ($27.7bn), or 3.5% of GDP, for 2014, according to local investment bank Jadwa. Jadwa projects 2014 revenue at SR1,174bn ($313bn) and expenditure of SR1,070bn ($285bn), 37% and 25% re...
Volume: 57Issue: 33Published at Fri, 15 Aug 2014 -
Oman Export Income Down
...ile oil revenues were down 4.7% to OR2.587bn ($6.73bn) in this period versus 1Q14, gas revenues were up 6.85% to OR 363mn ($940.1mn). Yet despite the drop in overall hydrocarbon revenue, Oman is on target to post a surplus for 2014. The Q1 figures imply total 2014 hydrocarbons revenue of OR...
Volume: 57Issue: 33Published at Fri, 15 Aug 2014 -
Jordan: $1bn Eurobond
...th principal and interest (MEES, 13 June). Jordan is set to post a deficit of JD1.114bn ($1.570bn, 4.3% of GDP) for 2014, and has to borrow from domestic and international capital markets. Spending is stretched by Jordan’s hosting of over 1 million Syrian refugees. It is also implementing IM...
Volume: 57Issue: 33Published at Fri, 15 Aug 2014 -
IMF: Politics Threatens Lebanon’s Economy
...clude 272MW of diesel-fired capacity installed by Denmark’s BWSC at Zouk and Jiyyah power plants for 2014 start-up (MEES, 19 July 2013), plus a second power barge of 95MW capacity from Turkey’s Karkey Karadeniz (MEES, 12 April 2013). Supplies typically cover only 18 hours per day, with frequent bl...
Volume: 57Issue: 32Published at Fri, 08 Aug 2014 -
Morocco Bags IMF, EU, Qatari Cash
...dustrial users and reduced the per-unit subsidy on diesel, with further reductions planned for the remainder of the year. Subsidies are to fall to MD35bn ($4.20bn) in 2014 (3.7% of GDP) from MD42bn ($5.04bn) in 2013 (4.7% of GDP), with a fall to 3% of GDP by 2017, according to the IMF and the Ministry of Ec...
Volume: 57Issue: 31Published at Fri, 01 Aug 2014 -
Egypt To Extend Gas Grid With World Bank Help
...w Constitution,” World Bank Vice President for the MENA region Inger Andersen says. The loan to Tunisia is part of a $1.2bn 2014 World Bank financial package (MEES, 6 June). The package also includes up to $750mn to support government reforms and promote growth and job creation, $100mn for a cr...
Volume: 57Issue: 31Published at Fri, 01 Aug 2014 -
Iranian Oil Export Revenues Slump 39% In 2013
...port volumes declined steeply by 42% to 1.215mn b/d in 2013 from 2.102mn b/d in 2012, according to OPEC’s 2014 Annual Statistical Bulletin (ASB), confirming the detrimental effects of the US and EU-led restrictions placed on Iran’s key oil and banking sectors in mid-2012. The West imposed severe ec...
Volume: 57Issue: 30Published at Fri, 25 Jul 2014 -
Sudan Economy Continues To Reel From Southern Amputation
...agged out until early-2014, after the conclusion of the government’s annual meeting with the IMF in late 2013. “An agreement was reached [with Khartoum] in March 2014, and the primary objectives of the staff monitored program are to first of all establish macroeconomic stability, and secondly to place th...
Volume: 57Issue: 30Published at Fri, 25 Jul 2014 -
IMF Lauds Saudi Economic Performance, But Warns Spending Is Too High
...sed to 2.7% in May 2014. This largely reflected lower food price inflation, which is largely in line with world trends. The unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia meanwhile fell in 2013, particularly among women. In 2014 growth is projected to rise slightly to 4.6%, driven by strong private sector gr...
Volume: 57Issue: 30Published at Fri, 25 Jul 2014 -
Egypt Looks to Reform To Attract Investment, Boost Growth
...2% for the current 2014-15 fiscal year, which began on 1 July. Egypt’s growth rate has been stuck at around 2% for the past three years (see graph, MEES 4 July) – that is to say since the Arab Spring ‘Revolution’ of early 2011. Without the two economic stimulus packages of $4.3bn and $4.9bn in...
Volume: 57Issue: 29Published at Fri, 18 Jul 2014 -
Yemen Oil Revenues Tumble Amid Violence
...YEMEN Yemen’s oil export revenue for the first five months of 2014 was a mere $671mn, down close to 40% on the same period last year. San’a typically relies on oil export revenues to finance up to 60% of its budget. Given average international prices of $110/B Yemen’s Masila Blend cr...
Volume: 57Issue: 28Published at Fri, 11 Jul 2014 -
Egypt Takes The Plunge And Raises Energy Prices
...EGYPT The Egyptian government has taken the long-awaited painful but necessary decision of raising domestic energy prices. Energy subsidies in the 2014-15 budget starting on 1 July are estimated at E£127bn ($17.7bn), or 16% of the budget – E£100bn ($14.0bn) for petroleum products an...
Volume: 57Issue: 28Published at Fri, 11 Jul 2014 -
Cyprus: IMF Calls For Banks, Energy Restructuring
...ansfers outside Cyprus without prior authorization. Ratings agency Fitch predicts that the “removal of the remaining capital controls is unlikely to be fully implemented before the end of 2014.” Fitch on 4 July upgraded its “long-term issuer default ratings” on Cyprus’ two largest banks, Bank of Cy...
Volume: 57Issue: 28Published at Fri, 11 Jul 2014 -
IMF: Real Estate Drives UAE Growth, Overheating Risk Remains
...debted GREs, noting that Dubai’s total government and GRE debt is estimated at $142bn (141% of Dubai GDP), with $92bn falling due in 2014-19. With the relaxation of rent controls, rising real estate prices may also feed into inflation. The IMF welcomed recent measures taken by Dubai to discourage sp...
Volume: 57Issue: 28Published at Fri, 11 Jul 2014 -
Egypt’s 2014-15 Budget Slashes Energy Subsidies, Deficit
...EGYPT Cairo aims to reduce its budget deficit for the 2014-15 fiscal year by more than originally envisaged, necessitating spending cuts that will largely come from curbing energy subsidies that have crippled government finances. The cabinet this week signed off a final budget with a de...
Volume: 57Issue: 27Published at Fri, 04 Jul 2014 -
Mideast FDI: ‘Bleak’ Prospects Amid Post-Arab Spring Instability-UN
...REGIONAL Prospects for foreign direct investment (FDI) to the Middle East “remain bleak [with] rising political uncertainty a strong deterrent,” the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) says in its World Investment Report 2014, released this week. Ongoing po...
Volume: 57Issue: 26Published at Fri, 27 Jun 2014 -
Bahrain: IMF Warns On ‘Fiscal Imbalances’
...e lower-income segments of the population, and on controlling the growth of current spending.” According to Bahrain’s two-year 2013-14 budget, allocations for oil and gas subsidies in the local market in 2013 amounted to BD878mn ($2,327mn), 26.6% of total oil and gas revenue, and in 2014 to BD...
Volume: 57Issue: 26Published at Fri, 27 Jun 2014 -
Libya: Budget ‘Approved’ But More Cuts Likely
...LIBYA Libya’s caretaker government of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni now considers the 2014 Libyan budget as having been “legally approved by the General National Congress (GNC).” Following a meeting on 10 June, the government issued a statement explaining that, in its own in...
Volume: 57Issue: 25Published at Fri, 20 Jun 2014 -
Morocco €1Bn Bond
...indexation), while extending social support to the most vulnerable of the population. In January 2014, the authorities removed subsidies on gasoline and industrial fuel and reduced the per-unit subsidy of diesel, and announced further reductions for the remainder of the year. Total subsidies in...
Volume: 57Issue: 25Published at Fri, 20 Jun 2014 -
Saudi Arabia Ponders Creation Of ‘National Reserve Fund’
...the medium term, while Saudi government spending continues to rise. The IMF has recently warned that the fiscal surplus is not sustainable and could decline further in 2014, with government spending, leading to a budget deficit in the next few years. Therefore the IMF stresses that it was im...
Volume: 57Issue: 24Published at Fri, 13 Jun 2014