Saudi-Yemeni Business Council President Abdullah Bugshan said the political turmoil in Yemen and the outbreak of unrest in the region has forced the council to halt its activities. The council was previously responsible for organizing meetings, exhibitions, and conferences, but due to the current turmoil, no commercial or investment-related activities in the country have been initiated. Events in Yemen have cast a shadow over the Yemeni economy and the volume of transactions, trade, investments, and exchanges with Saudi Arabia.

Iraq’s Kurdistan region received a $420 million budget payment from Baghdad, a long-awaited transfer of funds that puts a bilateral oil export agreement back on track. Baghdad cut budget payments to the Kurds in January 2014 over the semi-autonomous region’s oil policies but they were reinstated in December after the Kurds agreed to export an average of 550,000 bpd. The Kurds were promised 17 percent from this year’s $105 billion national budget, but the payment was missed in February. The central government has severe cash flow problems, burdened by low oil prices and the war it is waging against Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) militants across northern and western Iraq. [Reuters, 3/19/2015]

According to the High Planning Authority, Morocco’s consumer price inflation eased to an annual 1.3 percent in February from 1.6 percent in January as rising food and non-food prices slowed. Food inflation was up 1.8 percent after rising 2.1 percent in the twelve months until January 2015. The non-food price index rose 0.9 percent from the previous month. Transport costs fell 3.8 percent, while housing was 5 percent more expensive. [Reuters, 3/20/2015]