North Africa/Middle East

Egypt is “nearing the final stages” of its talks with the International Monetary Fund for a three-year support program, the government said, as it looks to repair an economy damaged by years of political upheaval, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank governor and finance minister will finalize negotiations with an IMF delegation due to arrive in Cairo within days, the cabinet said in an e-mailed statement. The government is targeting $7 billion annually over three years to finance the program, it said, without specifying how much it is seeking from the IMF.

A large GMC 4x4 sits with deflated tyres. Like the Range Rovers and Camaro GT parked nearby, it is covered in a thick layer of sandy dust — one of more than 30 apparently abandoned cars lining the bays of a floor of a multistorey car park at Dubai airport. The vehicles are testament to the rising number of “skips” afflicting Dubai — indebted expatriates who have left the city state rather than face debtors’ prison as an economic downturn squeezes the business and finance hub, the Financial Times reported.

Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy has slipped into a technical recession for the first time since the 1980s, compounding the woes of a country already grappling with an oil sector pummelled by low prices, the Financial Times reported. The country’s non-oil sector contracted 0.7 per cent year on year in the first three months of 2016, according to official data. This follows on from a weak fourth quarter of 2015, which the country’s statistics agency has now revised to show a 0.5 per cent year-on-year fall in non-oil output, rather than the 3.5 per cent rise originally reported.

Distressed debt funds will become big shareholders in troubled oil firm Gulf Keystone after bondholders agreed to swap $500 million of debt for equity, wiping out some of the world's top funds as shareholders, Reuters reported. Gulf Keystone operates the giant Shaikan oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan and produces about 40,000 barrels per day (bpd). The firm has been fighting to avoid insolvency after low oil prices and overdue oil export payments from the Kurdistan regional government crippled its balance sheet.

After weeks of fasting, affluent Saudis typically spend, feast and travel as they celebrate Eid to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Families gather in gleaming malls from Riyadh to Jeddah, picking up bargains and eating at restaurants. But this year, the celebrations took place in a distinctly more frugal climate, one clouded by fragile consumer confidence and a stuttering economy as Saudi Arabia reels from the plunge in oil prices and the impact of government austerity measures.

Saudi Arabia’s $72bn National Transformation Plan imposes a hefty 346 targets on ministries and governmental bodies with the ambitious goal of ending decades of addiction to hydrocarbon revenues and transforming an economy reliant on the state, the Financial Times reported. The pet project of Mohammed bin Salman, the powerful deputy crown prince, the plan’s targets include creating 1.2m private sector jobs in the next five years, with the aim that half of all Saudis will seek employment outside of the state sector by 2020. Here are five key themes in the 112-page document.

A Dubai-based firm has urged the Supreme Court to prevent it being sued here over its acquisition of a multi-million euro property in India from companies controlled by members of the family of businessman Sean Quinn, the Irish Times reported. Irish Bank Resolution Corporation alleges Mecon FZE is part of an alleged conspiracy by various Quinn family members and companies to place valuable assets beyond the bank’s reach.

Saudi Arabia’s finance minister confirmed that the kingdom was considering imposing income tax on foreign residents as it seeks to raise non-oil revenues and cut spending to fund its $72bn plan to diversify the economy, the Financial Times reported. Riyadh, which is scrambling to raise funds needed for wide-ranging reforms from fiscal and investment policy to social initiatives, is taking the unprecedented step of tapping global bond markets and reprioritising domestic spending.

Saudi Arabia unveiled plans to more than triple its nonoil revenue by 2020 while cutting state handouts, in a broad bid to reshape the kingdom’s economy amid falling energy prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. The initiative, called the National Transformation Program, offers details on how the ruling monarchy plans to achieve long-term economic change in an era of cheap oil. The overall target is ambitious: Riyadh expects nonoil revenue to more than triple by 2020 to 530 billion Saudi riyals ($141.33 billion).

Morocco's Casablanca appeals court upheld a ruling placing the country's sole oil refinery Samir into liquidation, the lawyer of the holding company that controls Samir said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Samir halted production in August due to financial difficulties, then a court ruling in March placed it in liquidation and named an independent trustee to run it. Its closure has made the country reliant on imports at a time when the North African kingdom is getting its finances back on track by tackling huge deficits.