Kuwait facing “lower-for-longer” oil prices

According to the IMF latest piece of news, Kuwait facing “lower-for-longer” oil prices from a position of strength, owing to large financial buffers, low debt, and a sound financial sector seems lately to be undergoing some radical changes in its regional and international stand. This latter is notably allowing the country to sign for instance […]

The IMF’s outlook for the MENA region

 
The IMF’s outlook for the MENA region has become over the years some sort of a report of a year’s economic policy result assessment of each country. Generally, and despite the on-going unrest in parts of the Arab world and in its neighbouring countries, the near-term economic outlook is very much subject to uncertainties of the global economy. Lower oil prices and production volumes are felt to have led to obviously lower growth in 2017 for most of the region’s oil exporters. These latter have over time past given some boost to the economies in the region.
The role of the International MonetaryFund as an overseeing organisation is undeniably helping to have a view at one’s country’s performance from as it were a certain distance. As a global organisation, its main function is to help stabilise exchange rates and provide loans to countries in need. It has previously in its Economic Overview of the MENA countries came up with the following . . . .

Saudi’s riches conceal lack of decision making

Saudi’s riches conceal lack of decision making on every single item of the country’s main current worrisome concerns. For instance, in Keep OPEC out of Wall Street published by Journal of Energy Security of July 19, 2017, we were informed that for the past several months two of the world’s leading stock exchanges – the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) – have been competing over the listing of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, in what would be the largest IPO in history. 

IMF Fiscal Transparency Evaluation for Tunisia

An IMF Fiscal Transparency Evaluation for Tunisia was published last week. It is based on the following understanding. Fiscal transparency – the comprehensiveness, clarity, reliability, timeliness, and relevance of public reporting on the past, present, and future state of public finances – is critical for effective fiscal management and accountability. It helps ensure that governments have an accurate picture of their finances when making economic decisions, including of the costs and benefits of policy changes and potential risks to public finances. It also provides legislatures, markets, and citizens with the information they need to hold governments accountable. The Fiscal Transparency Code and Evaluation are the key elements of the IMF’s ongoing efforts to strengthen fiscal surveillance, policymaking, and accountability among its member countries. The IMF has today published a Fiscal Transparency Evaluation (FTE) report for Tunisia . . . .

Iran moves to opening up for GCC’s businesses

The proposed article of Paul Ebeling’s on Iran moves to opening up for GCC’s businesses would be best to be prefaced by an introduction to a respectable retrospective of modern Iran as it is striving to pick up speed after coming out of the darkness of years of sanctions. Read more in A History of Modern Iran . In a radical reappraisal of Iran’s modern history, Ervand Abrahamian traces Iran’s traumatic journey across the twentieth century, through the discovery of oil, imperial interventions, the rule of the Pahlavis, and, in 1979, revolution and the birth of the Islamic Republic. In the intervening years, Iran has experienced a bitter war with Iraq, the transformation of society under the rule of the clergy, and, more recently, the expansion of the state and the struggle for power between the old elites, the intelligentsia, and the commercial middle class. The author, who is one of the most distinguished historians writing on Iran today, is a compassionate expositor. While he adroitly negotiates the twists and turns of the country’s regional and international politics, at the heart of his book are the people of Iran, who have endured and survived a century of war and revolution. It is to them and their resilience that this book is dedicated, as Iran emerges at the beginning of the twenty-first century as one