According to a government report by the High Commission for Planning, unemployment in Morocco rose during the latest quarter bringing the total national figure to 1.14 million. Unemployment rose from 9.1 percent to 9.6 percent nationwide. The biggest increase occurred among youth between 15 and 24 in both urban and rural areas. Mohamed Boussaid, the minister of the economy and finance, says the government was determined to make employment a key priority in Morocco’s budget next year.

According to the Egyptian oil ministry, Egypt plans to repay all of the $4.9 billion debt owed to foreign oil and gas companies within six months. The ministry expects to borrow $2 billion to help finance the repayments as it seeks to pay back 60 percent of the arrears by year-end. A gas shortage has left Egypt struggling with the worst energy crisis in years, diverting gas export to meet domestic demands. [Reuters, 11/13/2014]

Iraq’s central government and the autonomous region of Kurdistan reached an interim agreement over oil exports and budget payments. The agreement stipulates that the central government will pay $500 million to the Kurdistan Regional Government while the Kurds will let the Iraqi government sell 150,000 bpd of the oil exported by the Kurds. This agreement is expected to temporarily ease the tensions between the two parties which began earlier this year when Kurdish officials exported oil produced in the Kurdish region directly to Turkey without going through the Iraqi oil ministry. [NYT, 11/13/2014]