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Qatar: $15bn For Turkey
...erican pastor Andrew Brunson. Ankara responded with tariffs of its own on cars, cigarettes and alcohol. Qatar’s pledge is scant on details: Qatar, which benefitted from Turkey’s support during the June-2017 economic blockade (MEES, 9 June 2017), already promised to invest up to $20bn into the Turkish ec...
Volume: 61Issue: 33Published at Fri, 17 Aug 2018 -
US Slaps Back Iran Sanctions, With More To Come
...emselves more risk-averse. South Korea, Iran’s third largest buyer of crude and condensate in 2017 with 361,000 b/d, halted oil imports in July (MEES, 3 August), whilst Japanese imports fell to 130,000 b/d in Q2 from 190,000 b/d in Q1. Key EU buyers Italy and France have also been cutting volumes, th...
Volume: 61Issue: 32Published at Fri, 10 Aug 2018 -
Qatar Export Revenues Hit Three-Year High Despite Continued Embargo
...position in June 2017 (MEES, 9 June 2017). Internationally flagged vessels can still load up with cargoes from Qatar’s oil and gas terminals before calling on ports from embargoing nations – such as Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura or the UAE’s Das Island. Moreover, Qatari vessels can easily refuel at Oman’s So...
Volume: 61Issue: 31Published at Fri, 03 Aug 2018 -
Kuwait Fiscal Deficit Falls By 19% To $16bn For 2017-18
...-year real terms fall in its budget deficit for the year to 31 March 2018. The Ministry of Finance this week announced that the deficit fell from $19.5bn to $16bn. Predictably the deficit was much smaller than the $26.1bn laid out in the original 2017-18 budget law which underestimated oil prices an...
Volume: 61Issue: 31Published at Fri, 03 Aug 2018 -
Iran Appoints New Central Bank Chief: Mission Impossible?
...is capital flight is indeed alarming as it represents some 60% of Iran’s oil export revenue of $65.8bn for that year. According to the CBI, Iran posted a budget deficit of $8.2bn in 2017-18 and this will likely rise further if oil exports are cut under renewed US sanctions (MEES, 20 July). DI...
Volume: 61Issue: 30Published at Fri, 27 Jul 2018 -
Saudi Arabia Struggling To Reform Economy Despite Ambitious Plans
...ass (MEES, 28 April 2017). And as rebounding oil prices alleviate the government’s fiscal concerns, the imperative for reform lessens. The continued absence of a revamped National Transformation Plan (“NTP 2.0”) is certainly a cause for concern that momentum for reform has been lost. Originally co...
Volume: 61Issue: 29Published at Fri, 20 Jul 2018 -
Iran Budget Deficit Stubbornly High As Economic Turmoil Looms
...Iran posted an $8.2bn deficit in the last financial year. But with a growing economic crisis and looming sanctions, this may prove the highwater mark for some time. Iran posted a budget deficit of IR270 trillion ($8.2bn at the fixed budget rate of $1=IR33,000) in fiscal year 2017...
Volume: 61Issue: 29Published at Fri, 20 Jul 2018 -
Algeria: Reserves Slump To 12-Year Low, But Country Has Bigger Problems
...e country’s finances. Instead Algiers has opted for the highly-inflationary path of printing money to finance the country’s expected $19bn 2018 deficit (a cumulative $80bn since 2014 – MEES, 19 October 2017). A temporary ban on a whole swathe of imports is Algeria’s other key ‘alternative’ economic me...
Volume: 61Issue: 28Published at Fri, 13 Jul 2018 -
Egypt Pledges To End Energy Subsidies Within 12 Months
...mbit came as they faced what could otherwise have been some awkward meetings with IMF officials. “Higher than projected” oil prices mean that the country’s fuel subsidy bill hit E£121bn ($6.8bn) for the 2017-18 financial year which ended 30 June, well in excess of the E£108bn figure targeted by Egypt’s IM...
Volume: 61Issue: 28Published at Fri, 13 Jul 2018 -
Egypt Indicators Show Recovery Is Gathering Pace
...yptian economy are looking firmer than they have for some time. The country’s current account deficit fell to $5.3bn for the first nine months of the 2017-18 financial year (ie 3Q17-1Q18), down 58% from $12.5bn a year earlier, though the country’s quarterly trade deficit remains stuck at around $9bn (see ta...
Volume: 61Issue: 27Published at Fri, 06 Jul 2018 -
Qatar & Turkey: Brothers In Arms?
...The June 2017 Qatar embargo threw a spotlight on the deepening Doha-Ankara relationship. But trade volumes are modest, and the most ambitious contract to-date is a murky $5.2bn energy sector deal which raises more questions than answers. The 24 June re-election of Turkish President Recep Ta...
Volume: 61Issue: 26Published at Fri, 29 Jun 2018 -
Egypt Continues Subsidy Reform, Hikes Fuel Prices
...e chart). For the current 2017-18 financial year ending 30 June, Mr Molla says subsidies are on track to hit E£125bn ($7.0bn), well above the budgeted E£110bn, but slightly down in dollar terms on 2016-17’s E£115bn ($6.2bn) spend (MEES, 23 February). The increase in fuel prices could help ea...
Volume: 61Issue: 25Published at Fri, 22 Jun 2018 -
Iran: Growing Capital Outflow Threatens Economy Ahead Of Sanctions
...port on the crisis in Iran’s forex market. This showed a doubling of capital outflows from $20.2bn for the Iranian year to March 2017 to $39.2bn the following year; outflows soared to $13bn for the last quarter of that year. And that was before the US pulled out of the nuclear deal. The MRC also es...
Volume: 61Issue: 23Published at Fri, 08 Jun 2018 -
Iran’s Banking Sector: Dark Days Loom
...ghtening of sanctions from 2012, the last year in which oil revenues were above $100bn. ASTRONOMICAL SUMS Freshly-released Central Bank of Iran (CBI) figures for the 2017-18 fiscal year (which ended on 20 March), published this week, pegs end-year bad loans at an astronomical 1,300 trillion ri...
Volume: 61Issue: 22Published at Fri, 01 Jun 2018 -
Egypt: Economic Gains Threatened By Record Import Bill
...ilst the pound was heavily overvalued. But remittances have leapt since the Egyptian currency’s November 2016 devaluation – a prerequisite for the $12bn IMF deal (MEES, 18 November 2016) – with the figure hitting $20bn (8.5% of GDP) for the first time in 2017 (see chart 1). Tourism has also re...
Volume: 61Issue: 21Published at Fri, 25 May 2018 -
Lebanon Resorts to ‘Unconventional’ Tactics to Cope With Deficit
...3-10 years. The last time Lebanon borrowed from the international debt market was in March 2017, when it issued a triple-tranche Eurobond of $3bn (MEES, 24 March 2017). With $11.5bn pledged in grants and loans at the Cedre investment conference earlier this year (MEES, 13 April), international ag...
Volume: 61Issue: 21Published at Fri, 25 May 2018 -
Mubadala’s SWF Acquisitions To Create Global Champions
...vereign wealth funds have been watched with a keen interest since their inception - particularly over the last year. After acquiring International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) in January 2017 (MEES, 24 February 2017), Mubadala announced in March this year that it is planning a takeover of Abu Dhabi In...
Volume: 61Issue: 20Published at Fri, 18 May 2018 -
Qatar Boosts Earnings
...trochemicals expansion strategy and plans to construct a 1.6mn t/y ethane cracker (MEES, 8 December 2017). Qatar Petroleum (QP) announced on 15 May that “engineering design of the Petrochemicals Complex should commence shortly, leading to a planned start-up in 2025.” It will receive feedstock from the 4....
Volume: 61Issue: 20Published at Fri, 18 May 2018 -
Economic Reforms Boost Saudi Non-Oil Fiscal Revenue In 2018
...n-oil income: oil revenue, at $30.3bn, was up just 1.7% year-on-year. However, oil still retains its stranglehold on the economy, contributing 68.5% of total revenue, more than the full year 2017 figure of 63%. The Finance Ministry attributes the 63% year-on-year increase in non-oil revenue to “th...
Volume: 61Issue: 19Published at Fri, 11 May 2018 -
South Sudan Coffers Empty Amid Crippling Crude ‘Diversions’ To Khartoum
...e newly-independent country struggles to clear arrears with its new neighbor to the north (see charts, p16). South Sudan has received just 15% of the $3.62bn in gross export revenue for its crude since the start of 2017. Some $1.97bn has gone to the foreign partners (largely government-owned fi...
Volume: 61Issue: 19Published at Fri, 11 May 2018