According to the Yemeni Undersecretary of the Finance Ministry, the Yemeni state budget will lose $359 million this year if the oil price remained at $65 a barrel. With prices at $50 per barrel, the total loss of Yemen will be nearly $504 million. The government’s share of crude oil is estimated at 38 million barrels in 2015.
[SABA, 2/7/2015]
Libya’s last onshore export terminal shut by strike
Libya’s Hariga oil export port is still closed due to a strike by security guards demanding salary payments, closing the country’s last functioning trade port apart from two offshore fields. The closure will reportedly lower oil output to less than 300,000 barrels a day, a fraction of the 1.6 million Libya used to pump before 2011. The fall of oil exports to a trickle has led to a budget crisis, delaying salary payments, halting development projects, and hampering the supply hospitals with drugs. [Reuters, 2/9/2015]
Morocco on the road to rebalancing
Following a review of Morocco’s economic performance by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under a two-year Precautionary Liquidity Line (PLL), the IMF has said that decisive policy action is helping to rebalance the economy.The PLL was approved in July 2014 in an amount equivalent to Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 3.23 billion ($5 billion) or 550 percent of Morocco’s quota at the IMF. The access under the arrangement in the first year will be equivalent to SDR 2.9 billion ($4.5 billion), rising in the second year to a cumulative $5 billion. [CPI Financial, 2/8/2015]
Tunisian treasury current account balance amounts to 1.752 MTD
According to the Tunisian Central Bank (BCT), the current account balance of the treasury amounted to 1.752 million Tunisian dinars (MTD) in February 4, 2015, against 615 MTD at the end of 2014 and 199 MTD by late 2013. The BCT also noted overall “improvement in bank liquidity even if potential pressures persist given the gloomy national and global economic conditions and the challenges that will be faced by the country (emergency measures to boost investment and recover general financial balances).” [TAP, 2/8/2015]
Also of interest:
MENA M&A to maintain healthy growth into 2015 | Zawya
Report designates Tunisia the first ‘free’ Arab country in decades | Al-Monitor
Libya faces bankruptcy if low oil prices, political instability continue | Asharq Al-Awsat
Egypt to issue unified investment law by end of February | The Cairo Post
Egypt’s PMI fell in January | Al Ahram Weekly
Yemeni tribes say to retain oil fields from Houthis | World Bulletin
MENA M&A to maintain healthy growth into 2015 | Zawya
Report designates Tunisia the first ‘free’ Arab country in decades | Al-Monitor
Libya faces bankruptcy if low oil prices, political instability continue | Asharq Al-Awsat
Egypt to issue unified investment law by end of February | The Cairo Post
Egypt’s PMI fell in January | Al Ahram Weekly
Yemeni tribes say to retain oil fields from Houthis | World Bulletin