Author: Steven Sahiounie

Egypt has recorded a primary surplus of EGP 416 billion during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (FY) 2023/2024, amounting to 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP), Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait revealed in a statement on April 8th.

Remittances of Egyptian workers abroad dropped by 21.2% to $9.4 billion in H1 FY2023/2024 from $12 billion in the comparable period a FY earlier

The current account deficit increased to $9.60 billion during the July-December 2023 period from $1.80 billion in H1-22/23, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE)

The GDP surged to $40bln at constant prices for 2023 compared to $35bln the year before Bahrain’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 2.4% at constant prices in 2023 when compared to the previous year, according to national accounts estimates issued by the Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA). The GDP surged to BD13.6 billion ($40 billion) at constant prices for 2023 compared to BD13.3 billion ($35 billion) the year before. The iGA report also indicated that financial projects are among the largest non-oil sectors contributing to the real GDP with 17.8%, followed by the manufacturing industry with 13.6%. As per…

GCC government spending is expected to continue playing an important role in the near-to-medium term as countries look to achieve their ambitious development, diversification and net-zero targets, a report said.

Latvia significantly increased the volume of grain bought from Russia in the first quarter of 2024, the state revenue service in Riga announced on Monday. The Baltic nation recently announced a ban on some Russian imports, but exempted two key products.

The initiative attracted thousands of foreign investors since 2013, with most buying real estate Spain is planning to scrap its so-called ‘golden visa’ program, which grants residency rights to property buyers from outside the European Union, as Madrid attempts to increase the amount of affordable housing available to locals. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told reporters on Monday that his cabinet would take the first steps this week towards eliminating the program. Golden visas were introduced in 2013 and have enabled non-EU citizens who spent at least €500,000 ($543,000) on real estate to obtain the right to live and work in…

Geopolitical tensions and political polarization at home threaten “America’s global leadership role,” Jamie Dimon has warned

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, discussing bilateral relations. According to a statement issued by the Directorate of Communications, Erdogan and bin Salman also discussed global and regional issues. During the discussion, Erdogan said: “The Islamic world needs to demonstrate unity in a productive way by making more efforts to end Israel’s attacks on Palestine as soon as possible and to implement the cease-fire decision of the UN Security Council.” During the talks, he also extended his greetings to the crown prince for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr, the…

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock admitted that Germany has no more extra Patriot air defense systems to send to Kiev. “Unfortunately, we have nearly exhausted the arsenals of our own Patriot systems at this point, therefore I made it clear at a NATO foreign ministers meeting that we need to check the availability of all Patriot systems in Europe and globally and that we will make every effort to obtain these systems for Ukraine,” Germany’s top diplomat said at a news conference in Berlin. Germany and its allies will weigh setting up a special fund for this purpose, she added.…