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Iran Gasoline Prices Hike Fuels Nationwide Protest
...an the large demonstrations of December 2017 when 22 people were killed in many cities and towns in protest against poor living conditions (MEES, 19 January 2018). The Ministry of Interior warned the protesters that security forces will step up action against them to restore calm if their “il...
Volume: 62Issue: 47Published at Fri, 22 Nov 2019 -
Iran Crude Exports Go Dutch?
...Rotterdam, was long the key international trader in Iranian products: in January 2017 it inked a $1bn pre-finance deal with Tehran to be repaid from products exports. However former CEO Ian Taylor explicitly told MEES in October 2018 that the firm had no intention of trading with Iran under US sa...
Volume: 62Issue: 47Published at Fri, 22 Nov 2019 -
Saudi Arabia Expects Large Budget Deficits Until 2022
...SR1,048bn ($279bn) from SR1,106bn ($295bn - see table). The Saudi Finance Ministry issued its pre-budget statement for 2020 on 31 October. For 2020, the ministry projects the deficit will widen to SR187bn ($50bn), its highest figure since 2017 and equivalent to 6.5% of GDP. The reason for this 43...
Volume: 62Issue: 45Published at Fri, 08 Nov 2019 -
Pakistan’s Oil & Gas Imports: Gulf Dependence Intensifies
...minant. Given the dire state of relations between Qatar and the other two since 2017 this has at times put a strain on Pakistan’s regional diplomacy. Pakistan imported just shy of 400,000 b/d of crude and key oil products in the financial year to June 2019. Of this, over 94% came from Gulf countries wi...
Volume: 62Issue: 42Published at Fri, 18 Oct 2019 -
Iran Scrambles To Plug Budget Deficit
...om the original 2019-20 budget. Some IR100trn ($870mn) on additional funding will come from the sale of state-owned assets, and IR45trn ($391mn) from state foreign currency reserves. As of 2017 Iran had foreign reserves of $130bn according to an IMF estimate, although this figure has likely sh...
Volume: 62Issue: 39Published at Fri, 27 Sep 2019 -
Egypt Eyes More Borrowing Despite Falling Deficit
...ar ending 30 June. Some $4bn came from a dollar denominated bond in February 2019, with a euro-denominated bond in April chipping in €2bn ($2.5bn). For 2017-18, Egypt raised $6.5bn: $4bn in February 2018 and €2bn ($2.5bn) in April 2018 (MEES, 20 April 2018). Both 2016-17 bonds were in dollars for a to...
Volume: 62Issue: 37Published at Fri, 13 Sep 2019 -
Saudi First Half Export Revenues Slump $6bn
...surprisingly therefore, oil revenues have fallen accordingly (see chart 2). They threaten to fall below $50bn/quarter for the first time since late 2017. The latest trade stats also further highlight the government’s struggles to end Saudi Arabia’s “addiction to oil” as Crown Prince Mohammad pledged in 20...
Volume: 62Issue: 35Published at Fri, 30 Aug 2019 -
Kuwait Slashes 2018-19 Deficit Thanks To Higher Oil Prices
...port Blend crude averaged $68.6/B over the year to March 2019, up almost $14/B from the 2017-18 average of $54.7/B. As a result, oil revenues rose 29% to $60.8bn. Oil revenues were some 38% higher than the budgeted $44bn figure which was based on a conservative $50/B oil price assumption (see ta...
Volume: 62Issue: 33Published at Fri, 16 Aug 2019 -
Saudi Arabia Slashes Budget Deficit In 1H 2019
...rtails its capital spending programs. Real GDP growth is forecast by the IMF to fall to 1.7% this year from 2.2% for 2018 and a 0.7% contraction for 2017. Revenue was $135bn for 1H 2019, up 15% year-on-year. The key element was unsurprisingly oil revenue, which rose by 15% to $92bn, 68% of the total. Th...
Volume: 62Issue: 32Published at Fri, 09 Aug 2019 -
Oman Cuts Deficit, But Oil Dependence Remains
...llowing several years of troubling fiscal developments, Oman looks to have finally caught a break. Preliminary figures from the government’s National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI) indicate that the sultanate ran a $6.9bn (OR 2.65bn) deficit in 2018, down from $9.8bn in 2017 and co...
Volume: 62Issue: 30Published at Fri, 26 Jul 2019 -
Iran Struggling To Implement Crtitical Economic Reforms
...reduce absolute poverty, $383mn for heath care and $480mn to subsidize wheat purchases. In 2017-18 the government’s paid $12.7bn in cash handouts for over 70 million Iranians (MEES, 20 July 2018), a much higher figure in dollar terms than the allocation for this year, mainly because of a stronger ri...
Volume: 62Issue: 29Published at Fri, 19 Jul 2019 -
Kuwait Eyes Huge 2019-20 Budget Deficit
...nancial resources. The IMF estimates that debt fell from 20.7% of GDP in 2017 to 14.8% in 2018, but projects this rising to 17.8% this year. The implication is that the IMF expects a new debt law to be issued this year, and credit rating agency Fitch also expects “that it will get passed in time to en...
Volume: 62Issue: 28Published at Fri, 12 Jul 2019 -
Algeria Calls Time On Quantitative Easing
...non-conventional financing is over” confirming a policy shift indicated by the Bank of Algeria in a 1 April research note. This said, the program, initiated in September 2017(MEES, 15 September 2017) was “unjustified right from the start” with “conventional financial means yet to reach their li...
Volume: 62Issue: 26Published at Fri, 28 Jun 2019 -
Egypt’s Freshly-Minted 2019-20 Budget Promises More Subsidy Cuts
...gins on 1 July. Key to Cairo’s economic plans are further cuts to spending on oil product subsidies. Latest official forecasts peg such spending at E£90bn ($5.1bn) for the 2018-19 financial year (ending 30 June), down 25% from 2017-18 and less than a third of the record $18.6bn spend seen in 20...
Volume: 62Issue: 26Published at Fri, 28 Jun 2019 -
DC’s Bahrain ‘Mideast Peace’ Conference: Deal of the Century or Damp Squib?
...rael-Palestine conflict once and for all. STICKS AND CARROTS It’s little wonder that Mr Kushner has chosen an investment rather than a political angle to kick off his Middle East peace initiative: since taking office in 2017, Mr Trump torched what little goodwill the US had left wi...
Volume: 62Issue: 25Published at Fri, 21 Jun 2019 -
Algeria Cuts Deficit For 2018: Gains Will Likely Prove Short-Lived
...venue. Overall 2018 state revenues, at AD6,620bn ($56.5bn), were up 9.5% on 2017 in nominal dinar terms, though the gains fall to 4% in dollar terms given the continued slide of the Algerian currency against the greenback. $1 bought AD111 in 2017, AD117 in 2018 and an average of AD119 so far in 2019. Sp...
Volume: 62Issue: 23Published at Fri, 07 Jun 2019 -
Algeria’s Export Revenue Buffeted By US Shale Hurricane
...the 2.9bcm/y Reggane field and the March 2018 start-up of 1.8bcm/y Timimoun (MEES, 22 December 2017). This year’s only significant boost will come from the Touat field, which like Reggane and Timimoun is in the country’s far southwest. Here private equity-led operator Neptune Energy is ta...
Volume: 62Issue: 21Published at Fri, 24 May 2019 -
Korea: April Iran Imports At 18-Month High
...Korea’s crude sourcing in recent times has been the sliding share from the Middle East: from 86.4% of 2016 imports to 82.3% for 2017, 74.4% for 2018 and 74.0% for the first four months of 2019. And this has been the result of a deliberate policy with the government offering the country’s im...
Volume: 62Issue: 20Published at Fri, 17 May 2019 -
LNG Markets Under Pressure From Soaring Us Exports
...nce the 10% tariff was introduced last year trade has slowed to a trickle, with just three US cargoes sailing for China in the first three months of 2019, versus a quarterly record of 20 for Q4 2017. *In the absence of former top buyer China, US cargoes have headed far and wide. India took a re...
Volume: 62Issue: 20Published at Fri, 17 May 2019 -
Iran Threat To Nuke Deal As Exports, Revenues Face Collapse
...15, amid overall record 617,000 b/d imports. Turkey imported 91,000 b/d from Iran in February, up slightly on January’s 90,000 b/d but less than half average volumes of 210,000 b/d for 2017 and 1H 2018 when the Islamic Republic was Turkey’s top crude supplier. Certainly Turkey, as with India and Ch...
Volume: 62Issue: 19Published at Fri, 10 May 2019