Egyptian urban prices accelerated at their fastest pace since December, raising the chances of the central bank retaining one of the world’s highest real interest rates next week, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices in urban parts of the North African nation grew an annual 4.8% in May, compared with 4.1% in April, the state-run statistics agency CAPMAS said Thursday. Prices increased 0.7% month-on-month.

Dubai-based Emirates REIT withdrew the restructuring proposal for its $400 million Islamic bond after a group of investors successfully opposed the deal, Bloomberg News reported. Emirates REIT said Monday that 57% of sukuk-holders who voted were in favor of its exchange offer. It said that 79% of its bondholders cast votes, without providing further details. The outcome fell short of the 75% the fund required to push through the proposal. As a result, it rescinded the plan but vowed to continue exploring options to improve the REIT’S sukuk and equity trading.

Oman has started talks with banks for a potential Islamic bond sale this year, Bloomberg News reported. The Gulf nation’s discussions are still preliminary. Oman last tapped the international debt market in January, when it raised $3.25 billion. The country’s debt is rated junk by all three major credit assessors. Oman’s public finances, long among the weakest in the Gulf Arab region, remain vulnerable to oil-price swings and disruptions from the global pandemic.

A lender wholly owned by the federal government of the United Arab Emirates is planning to sell its second-ever international bonds as soon as this month, Bloomberg News reported. Emirates Development Bank, which started operations in 2015 and provides financing to citizens and small- and medium-sized enterprises, could raise $750 million or more, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. The money would go toward supporting companies in sectors considered a priority for the economy, the people said.

Lebanon scrapped a new dollar-deposit rule on Thursday that triggered minor street protests and meant savers lost the ability to change their money at a more favorable rate, Bloomberg News reported. A day after the Shura Council, the country’s top judicial body, banned a long-standing rule allowing depositors to access their dollars at a rate higher than the official currency peg, Riad Salameh, the governor of Banque du Liban, said the decision was being revoked. The rule “is still in effect,” Salameh told reporters in Beirut after meeting with the president and the head of the council.

The OPEC oil cartel and allied producing countries plan to restore 2.1 million barrels per day of crude production, balancing fears that COVID-19 outbreaks in some countries will sap demand against surging energy needs in recovering economies, the Associated Press reported. Energy ministers made the decision during an online meeting Tuesday.

Saudi Arabian oil group Aramco is in talks with banks for a U.S. dollar-denominated bond issue, two sources said, seeking to raise money ahead of large commitments for its major shareholder, the Saudi government, Reuters reported. Aramco was widely expected to become a regular bond issuer after its debut $12 billion bond deal in 2019 was followed by an $8 billion, five-part transaction in November last year.

Abu Dhabi’s state oil firm raised $1.64 billion by selling bonds and shares in its fuel arm, which slumped the most in more than a year, Bloomberg News reported. The capital of the United Arab Emirates contains almost all the OPEC member’s hydrocarbon reserves. The government, along with others in the region such as Saudi Arabia and Oman, is seeking to use money from energy assets to build new industries and diversify the economy. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.

Egypt is targeting $6 billion-$9 billion in tourism revenue in 2021 as an influx of Eastern European and Gulf vacationers revive a key sector heavily hit by the pandemic, the minister said, Bloomberg News reported. With visitors numbers having risen to about 500,000 a month, Egypt is hoping for a total of more than 6 million tourists this year, Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany said Wednesday on the sidelines of a tourism conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.