Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Saudi slowdown underway Our GDP Tracker suggests that Saudi Arabia’s economy slowed in August and, with a fiscal squeeze looking increasingly likely, growth looks set to weaken further over the coming quarters. We continue... 20th October 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Saudi Arabia’s FX reserve depletion has further to run The fact that Saudi Arabia is drawing down its foreign exchange reserves should come as little surprise given that the Kingdom is running a current account deficit and also facing sizeable capital... 28th September 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Slowdown on the horizon in Saudi Arabia Our GDP Tracker suggests that Saudi Arabia’s economy continued to grow by over 5% y/y at the start of Q3. However, this is likely to be as good as it gets for some time – we expect growth to slow over... 16th September 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update How large is Saudi Arabia’s fiscal buffer? With oil prices still languishing at multi-year lows, Saudi Arabia’s budget position – which looks set to post a shortfall of close to 20% of GDP this year – has come under increasing scrutiny in... 7th September 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Buoyant oil sector supports strong growth in Saudi Arabia Our GDP Tracker suggests that Saudi Arabia’s economy continued to grow by over 5% y/y at the end of Q2, supported by strong growth in the oil sector. However, with Iranian oil set to return to the... 18th August 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Data Response Saudi Arabia Consumer Prices (Jul.) Saudi Arabian inflation remained unchanged at 2.2% y/y last month and, overall,price pressures appear to be subdued. We think this is likely to remain the case overthe next 18 months or so. 13th August 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Gulf markets weather fall in oil prices Equity markets in the Gulf have performed better than might have been expected this month, given the fresh fall in global oil prices. Meanwhile, Egyptian stocks,bonds and the currency have all fared... 28th July 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Growth in Saudi Arabia accelerates further on back of oil sector Our GDP Tracker suggests that growth in Saudi Arabia accelerated further, to around 5.5% y/y in May, supported by strong growth in the oil sector. But with Iranian oil likely to return to the market... 21st July 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Saudi debt issuance aimed at financial market development Saudi Arabia’s budget deficit is likely to reach an eye-watering 17.5% of GDP this year and the government has now turned to the bond market in order to help plug the gap. Some have argued that debt... 13th July 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Data Response Saudi Arabia GDP (Q1) The pick-up in Saudi GDP growth in the first quarter of this year, to 2.4% y/y, was supported by a rebound in the oil sector and robust activity in the non-oil sector. These data confirm our view that... 2nd July 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Muted reaction as Saudi stock market opens up The formal opening up of Saudi Arabia’s stock market earlier this month was adamp squib, as equities remained flat. Elsewhere, stocks in Egypt have been the worst-performers over the past month, while... 25th June 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Muted reaction as Saudi stock market opens up The formal opening up of Saudi Arabia’s stock market earlier this month was adamp squib, as equities remained flat. Elsewhere, stocks in Egypt have been the worst-performers over the past month, while... 25th June 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update A primer on how Saudi Arabia uses its FX reserves There seems to be a lot of confusion as to exactly how Saudi Arabia is using its foreign exchange reservesto finance twin budget and current account deficits. In this Update, we shed some light on the... 25th June 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update Saudi growth picks up, but rebound likely to fizzle out Our GDP Tracker suggests that Saudi Arabia’s economy grew by 5.0% y/y in April, supported by a rebound in oil production and robust growth in the non-oil sector. But activity is likely to soften in... 17th June 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economic Outlook Gulf countries weathering the storm, but growth to weaken The Gulf economies have weathered the storm created by low oil prices relatively well this year, with foreign exchange reserves having been drawn down to sustain spending. Large savings mean that this... 15th June 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Data Response Saudi Arabia Consumer Prices (May) Inflation in Saudi Arabia edged up to 2.1% y/y in May, but price pressures are still subdued. Against the backdrop of slower growth and weak commodity prices, we expect this to remain the case for the... 11th June 2015 · 1 min read
