Economy

Gulf Arabs delay single currency beyond 2010 deadline

The 2010 deadline for a Gulf Arab single currency will be extended and a new timetable set, senior Gulf officials said in the first official recognition that monetary union plans would be delayed. Five Gulf Arab states -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar -- have been working for years towards launching a single currency in 2010, a deadline that analysts and even policymakers had long said was untenable.

Bahrain cbank loosens bank lending curbs

Bahrain's central bank loosened bank lending curbs due to easing inflationary pressures, the latest move in the oil-exporting Gulf region to help unlock credit markets. States across the world's biggest oil exporting region, including Saudi Arabia, have been slashing interest rates, setting up emergency funding facilities for banks and easing lending curbs to help banks weather the financial crisis. Bahrain's central bank said it had lowered the reserve requirement for banks to 5 percent from 7 percent.

UAE federal govt says to move to 3-year budgets

The United Arab Emirates said it was revamping the way it develops its federal budget, including releasing budgets every three years and adopting a "zero-based budgeting" format. The first three-year budget would run from 2011 to 2013, and the draft would be ready by November this year, the oil exporter's Ministry of Finance said. Analysts deemed the move as more appropriate to help the country prioritise spending.

Saudi Arabia: The Benefits of Restraint

Thanks to a history of prudent economic policy, Saudi Arabia today is well equipped to deal with whatever challenges might arise as a result of the global financial crisis. Though the government has projected a budget deficit of SR65bn ($17.34bn) for 2009 - its first since 2002 - the Kingdom's ample reserves will provide a buffer. Government debt stands at a mere 13% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while 2008 saw a record budget surplus of SR590bn ($157bn). Additionally, as of the end of 2008, combined net foreign assets for the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) and Saudi commercial banks amounted to an impressive SR1.68 trillion ($449bn), while total deposits for all domestic commercial banks stood at SR846bn ($226bn), according to SAMA's most recent report.

Egyptian inflation falls to lowest level in year

Urban inflation in Egypt eased to 13.5 percent in the year to February, its lowest level in a year, as monthly inflation stalled in most areas except food, Egypt's state-run statistics agency said. Urban inflation figures, the most closely watched indicator of price growth in Egypt, have trended lower since hitting a peak of 23.6 percent in the year to August on the back of skyrocketing food costs. Urban inflation was 14.3 percent in the year to January. Countrywide, inflation rose to 14.2 percent in the year to February from 14 percent a month earlier, statistics agency CAPMAS said.

Saudi Arabia inflation falls to 6.9 pct in Feb

Annual inflation in Saudi Arabia fell for a fourth month in February to 6.9 percent, the lowest rate in more than a year, as inflationary pressures ease on lower commodity prices and a slowdown in local demand. Inflation in the world's top oil exporter, which had peaked last year at more than 11 percent in July, fell from 7.9 percent in January, the kingdom's Central Department of Statistics said on its website on Wednesday, without giving a breakdown. The Saudi cost of living index rose to 120.6 points on Feb. 28 compared with 112.8 points a year earlier, the data showed. The month-on-month rise in prices was 0.08 percent.

Qatar's Q4 nominal GDP grew 7.8 pct to $22.8 bn

Qatar's economy grew 7.8 percent at current prices in the fourth quarter to 83.2 billion riyals ($22.85 billion), down from a more than 60-percent surge in the third quarter, as energy prices slumped, official data showed. Fourth-quarter nominal gross domestic product (GDP) for the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas rose from 77.2 billion riyals a year earlier, the Qatar Statistics Authority said in a statement. Qatar's economy expanded 44 percent to 372.38 billion riyals at current prices for all of 2008, when oil prices rallied to a record peak above $147 a barrel in July, the data showed.

Standard Chartered predicts UAE GDP growth of 0.5% this year

The UAE's gross domestic product is expected to grow at a modest 0.5 per cent in 2009 largely due to the global economic crisis, said Marios Maratheftis, Standard Chartered Bank's regional head of research for the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan. The GDP growth projection by Standard Chartered is in sharp contrast to the UAE government's prediction of almost three per cent growth in the country's GDP this year, based on non-oil businesses continuing to expand and realty sector moving steadily to more stable levels.

Egypt finmin sees growth at 4-4.5 pct in 08/09

Egyptian Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali said he expected Egypt's economic growth to slow dramatically to between 4 to 4.5 percent in the 2008/09 fiscal year, from 7.2 percent a year earlier. Egypt's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 7.2 percent in the 2007/08 fiscal year, the fastest pace in decades. But in the second quarter of the current fiscal year, the last for which figures are available, it grew just 4.1 percent.

NoozzVIEW: New Saudi move to raise lending

At a time when governments around the world are struggling to increase the willingness and ability of banks to lend and therefore step up the chances of a swift end to the current depression, Saudi Arabia has stolen a march by unveiling a scheme which will pass the buck to state investment companies for a limited period. Under the blueprint, which has already drawn praise from economic policy-makers in the West, state investment funds in Riyadh will be encouraged to extend credit to companies in a bid to make up for the reluctance being shown by the banks.