Mideast oil exporters’ foreign reserves to rise: IMF
Khaleej Times - 11 October, 2009
Oil exporters in the Middle East and North Africa region are expected to increase their international reserve positions by over 100 billion dollars in 2010 as oil prices rebound, the IMF said on Sunday.
The rebuilding of their international reserve positions would help governments of the region maintain public spending, which has helped mitigate the impact of the global financial turmoil on their economies, the International Monetary Fund said in report released in Dubai.
“With higher oil prices and the anticipated re-emergence of global demand, oil revenues are expected to increase, allowing oil exporters to rebuild their international reserve positions by over 100 billion dollars in 2010,” the Middle East and Central Asia Regional Economic Outlook report said.
Oil exporters — Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, UAE and Yemen — have suffered as oil prices dropped to near 30 dollars per barrel around the turn of the year from a life-time high of 147 dollars per barrel in July 2008.
Since then, it has rebounded to around 70 dollars per barrel.
The IMF projected that the economies of all countries of the Middle East and North Africa in addition to Afghanistan and Pakistan are expected to grow 4.0 percent in 2010.
Brown seeks oil dollars to keep IMF in the black (last year)
November 03 2008
BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday he expects Saudi Arabia to contribute to the International Monetary Fund's bailout reserves after he promised business leaders in the Gulf that they would have a say in any future new world economic order.
Mr Brown is leading calls for oil-rich Middle Eastern countries to be among the biggest donors to the IMF's coffers, which at $250bn have already been depleted by emergency cash calls from Iceland, Hungary and the Ukraine totalling some $30bn.
"The Saudis will, I think, contribute so we can have a bigger fund worldwide," he said after a weekend meeting with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.
But analysts have argued that Gulf states will feel little impetus to bolster the IMF fund, given its domination by the United States and the G7 industrialised nations.
Any funds from Gulf states are unlikely to be pledged before a meeting of G-20 nations to discuss potential global financial reforms, on November 15 in Washington.
