Egypt’s central bank devalued its currency and said it would adopt a more flexible exchange-rate policy as it seeks to ease an acute dollar shortage that is hurting the economy, sending local stocks sharply higher, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Central Bank of Egypt on Monday sold almost $200 million in an interbank auction at 8.85 Egyptian pounds per dollar, compared with the previous rate of 7.73 that it maintained for nearly five months. The move will help narrow the gap between the pound’s exchange rate of about 9.6 to the dollar last week in the black market.

Iran’s central bank is preparing to set up a “bad bank” to cleanse its financial system of a vast pile of toxic loans after studying the models used by other countries, such as Sweden, Japan and South Korea. The plans were part of an array of reform measures designed to bolster the country’s economy presented by a senior central bank official at the Financial Times’ inaugural Iran summit in London on Wednesday.

The full Knesset late Monday passed a bill in its first reading meant to completely revamp the bankruptcy scene to help bring the law on the issue into "the 21st century" as Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has often put it, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Credit cards on the limit, huge bank borrowings and a struggle to repay loans: these are the personal debt problems of some Qataris despite the Gulf state's reputation for fabulous wealth, Reuters reported. Generous government salaries and free healthcare, funded by vast natural gas reserves in a country with only about 300,000 citizens, do not always translate into healthy bank balances for ordinary Qataris.

The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday urged energy exporters of the Middle East to raise more taxes as governments across the region grapple with a dramatic drop in oil revenues, The Wall Street Journal reported. “These economies need to strengthen their fiscal frameworks and re-engineer their tax systems by reducing their heavy reliance on oil revenues and by boosting non-hydrocarbon sources of revenues,” Christine Lagarde said at a finance forum in the United Arab Emirates capital.

More than one-third of oil and natural-gas producers around the world are at risk of declaring bankruptcy this year, according to a new report from Deloitte, The Wall Street Journal MoneyBeat blog reported. Oil prices have plunged from more than $100 a barrel in mid-2014 to about $30 a barrel today. Yet just 35 so-called exploration and production companies filed for bankruptcy between July 2014 and the end of last year, Deloitte says. Most producers managed to stay afloat by raising cash through capital markets, asset sales and spending cuts. Those options are running out.

In pressed white robes and clutching crisp résumés, young Saudi men packed a massive hall at a university in the capital city this month to wait in long lines to pitch themselves to employers. It was one of three jobs fairs in Riyadh in two weeks, and the high attendance was fueled in part by fear among the younger generation of what a future of cheap oil will mean in a country where oil is everything, the International New York Times reported.

Officials in Riyadh are heaving a sigh of relief amid indications that Saudis are willing to shoulder unprecedented cuts to long-cherished government subsidies. But with predictions of more economic pain to come it is unclear whether they will accept further reductions to their incomes, the Financial Times reported. Facing its worst fiscal outlook in 15 years amid falling oil prices, the government announced an austerity budget last December, slashing spending to plug the gap and lifting petrol, electricity and water prices for consumers and gas and feedstock prices for industry.

Top UK regulators are trying to help three Iranian-owned banks reintegrate into the financial system after years of international sanctions — by deploying a unit designed to aid start-ups, the Financial Times reported. The UK-based Iranian lenders would be among the first beneficiaries of the just-launched unit, which allows participating banks access to services such as a helpline and case officers. The Bank of England officially reactivated the licences of the three banks — Persia International Bank, Melli Bank and Bank Sepah International — two weeks ago.

One of the Middle East's longest-running debt disputes edged closer to being resolved on Thursday when Saudi Arabian family conglomerate Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers (AHAB) presented a revised restructuring plan. AHAB has around 22.5 billion riyals ($6 billion) of claims against it after the hospitality, food and real estate group collapsed in 2009 along with Saad Group, a separate Saudi business empire led by Maan al-Sanea. Since then, the two groups have conducted a high-profile battle in the courts over who was to blame.