Regional News

  Emirates Business Morocco’s Casa Transports has awarded Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi an €83m ($94m) contract for the construction of Line 2 of the Casablanca tram line. The line will feature 20 stations, with construction expected to take a two-and-a-half years, according to a rail industry publication. Line 2 will start where the western branch of Line 1 terminates, at Boulevard …

Bloomberg   Saudi Arabia plans to cut the public-sector wage bill as well as subsidies by 2020, scaling back the state largess that helped ensure political loyalty in the largest Arab economy. The reductions are a pillar of the National Transformation Program the Saudi cabinet approved on Monday. A major component of the Vision 2030 plan unveiled by Deputy Crown …

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is scaling back renewable power targets as the world’s biggest oil exporter plans to use more natural gas, backing away from goals set when crude prices were triple their current level, according to Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih. The kingdom aims to have power generation from renewable resources like the sun make up 10 percent of the …

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is cracking down on banks that are lowballing interest rate submissions, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency has written to banks instructing them not to submit levels to the Saudi Interbank Offered Rate that are below what they’re actually willing to lend at, four people said, asking not to be …

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, raised pricing on most oil grades for sale to Asia and the U.S. in July after the nation’s energy minister said demand was robust. State-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co. increased its official selling price for Arab Light crude by 35 cents a barrel to 60 cents more than the regional benchmark …

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s plans to bolster its finances are taking on a new sense of urgency as lower oil prices put the economy under more strain than at any other time in the past decade. In recent weeks, the kingdom raised a $10 billion loan, clamped down on currency speculators and informed banks of plans to raise as much …

  Riyadh / Emirates Business Saudi Arabia’s non-oil private sector looked to be in good shape midway through the second quarter, as business conditions improved to the greatest extent since last November. Both output and new orders rose sharply in May, with the rate of expansion in the latter picking up to a five-month high. Companies raised their input buying …

  Reuters Morocco is aiming to introduce a flexible exchange rate system in the early part of 2017, its central bank governor said on Sunday. “We are considering the move currently from fixed exchange rate to a flexible exchange rate,” Abdellatif Jouahri told reporters on the sidelines of an Arab finance ministers event. Jouahri said the country would work with …

  Reuters Business activity in Egypt shrank for the eighth straight month in May but at a lesser extent than previous three months, a survey showed on Sunday. The Emirates NBD Egypt Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for the non-oil private sector recorded 47.6 points in May after 46.9 points in April, remaining below the 50-point mark that separates growth from …

  Manama / Tribune News Service An initiative to collect excess fresh food from supermarkets and distribute to those in need could soon be implemented. Muharraq Municipal Council chairman Mohammed Al Sinan said throwing away unsold edible food should be banned, describing it as a blessing from God that must be conserved. Hundreds of thousands of farm animals, as well …