Saudi Arabia raised oil prices for buyers in Asia to record levels, a sign the world’s largest exporter sees the region’s market remaining tight, Bloomberg News reported. Despite indications that slowing economies are starting to hit global demand for crude, state producer Saudi Aramco increased its Arab Light grade for next month’s shipments to Asian refineries to $9.80 a barrel above the Middle Eastern benchmark. That’s 50 cents more than in August. Still, traders and refiners had expected a bigger jump of $1.50, according to a Bloomberg survey in late July.

Egyptians are finding some consumer goods increasingly hard to come by, as attempts to buffer the currency ripple across the $400 billion economy that’s running short on dollars, Bloomberg News reported. Although basic commodities are freely available, shortages in more luxurious products -- ranging from summer clothes to imported cars -- are becoming common. Choices for customers have dwindled at fast fashion groups like Mango, Zara and H&M.

Egypt's annual urban consumer inflation slowed to 13.2% year-on-year in June from 13.5% in May, data from the state statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. Month on month, headline inflation eased 0.1%, compared to a 1.1% increase in May. The sharpest annual price increases were in the food and drink, recreation, and restaurant and hotel sectors, according to CAPMAS. The central bank on Thursday said core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as food, rose to 14.6% year on year in June from 13.3% in May.

A delegation from the International Monetary Fund will visit Tunisia on Monday to start negotiations over a loan programme, a central bank official told Reuters on Friday, Reuters reported. This follows the completion of technical talks between the IMF and Tunisia, said Zied Mouhli, a central bank spokesperson. Tunisia, which is facing a financial crisis, is seeking to reach a loan deal in return for an unpopular reform package to shore up its struggling public finances.

Egypt’s central bank surprised most economists by leaving interest rates unchanged on Thursday, saying it can do little about external shocks to prices a month after delivering its biggest hike in nearly half a decade, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee maintained the deposit rate at 11.25% and the lending rate at 12.25%, a decision predicted by only three of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. While its move in May was more hawkish than expected, the central bank now appears content to wait out what it called “transitory deviations” of inflation from target.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati won the support of more than 50 legislators Thursday to keep his post following last month’s parliamentary elections as the country’s multiple crises deepen with no solution in sight, the Associated Press reported. After a day of binding consultations between President Michel Aoun and parliamentary blocs, Mikati was named by 54 lawmakers while his main rival for the post got less than half that figure. Forty-six legislators abstained from naming anyone.

The future of Dubai-based crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital hangs in the balance as the firm faces potential insolvency after being liquidated by its lenders, The Block reported. According to well-placed sources, the investment firm — which counts the likes of options exchange Deribit and financial services firm BlockFi among its venture bets — is in the process of figuring out how to repay lenders and other counter-parties after it was liquidated by top tier lending firms in the space.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, raised July crude oil prices for Asian buyers to higher-than-expected levels amid concerns about tight supply and expectations of strong demand in summer, Reuters reported. The official selling price (OSP) for July-loading Arab Light to Asia was hiked by $2.1 a barrel from June to $6.5 a barrel over Oman/Dubai quotes, just off an all-time-high recorded in May. That was much higher than most market forecasts for an increase around $1.5. Only one respondent of six in a Reuters poll had predicted a jump of $2.

The group of oil-producing nations known as OPEC Plus agreed on Thursday to a larger increase in supply than planned for July and August, the New York Times reported. After a videoconference, the group said it would raise production by 648,000 barrels a day, an increase of about 50 percent over the 430,000 barrels a day agreed under a program last year. Essentially, producers are compressing three months of planned increases into two months. The group suggested in a news release that it was responding to a reopening from lockdowns in countries like China.