Gulf economies will have slow growth rates in 2010

By Ribal Dayekh in Dubai
For Al-Shorfa.com
2010-05-01

[QNA/AFP/Getty Images] A natural gas drilling rig off the coast of Qatar.

The majority of the GCC countries will have a low growth rate this year, with debt restructuring plans to affect credit growth, according to a Thomson Reuters poll published Wednesday (April 28th).

The poll showed that Qatar will remain the region's leader with a 16.1% jump in gross domestic ‎product this year, thanks to massive expansion of its natural gas facilities and spending on infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and the world's largest oil exporter, is ‎expected to grow by 3.9%, followed by Kuwait with 3.3%. As for Oman and Bahrain, they are expected to grow by 3.7% and 3.0% respectively, the report added.

The UAE is seen as growing 2.5% this year, the slowest pace in the Gulf, in line with government forecasts, but above last week's 1.3% projection by the IMF.

Saudi-American Business Opportunity Forum

The Saudi-American Business Opportunity Forum, an event organised by the International Trade Committee in the Saudi Chambers Council together with the US-Saudi Arabian Business Council, was held Wednesday (April 28th) in Chicago. During the forum, the Kingdom's representatives presented a diverse investment portfolio worth approximately 1 trillion Saudi riyals.

Abdulrahman Al-Juraisi, Vice Chairman of the Saudi Chambers Council, said the US was "one of the Kingdom's most important trade partners." The Kingdom's market is the largest in the Middle East, and its economic and investment environment is distinguished because it was not affected by the global economic crisis, due to the wise Saudi economic and financial policies, he said.

Trade exchange between Saudi Arabia and the US stood at 193.3 billion riyals in 2008 ($51.5 billion) and direct US exports to the Kingdom are projected to rise to 63 billion riyals in 2010 ($6.8 billion).

Dubai Petroleum Enterprises invites bids for production facility

Dubai Petroleum Enterprises has invited international engineering firms to submit bids to build production facilities at the Al Jalilah oilfield, which was discovered on February 4th of this year. T

he contract covers the construction of a basic unmanned offshore production platform with a single compressor unit and about 12 km of flow lines to transport the oil produced at the field to Dubai Petroleum's onshore processing and distribution facilities. It is valued at about $50-100 million.

Potential contractors include Paris-based Technip, Jebel Ali-based J Ray McDermott and Abu Dhabi-based National Petroleum Construction Company.

Lebanese gold reserves

Lebanon's total gold reserves were equivalent to 28.1% of the GDP as of the end of September 2009, according to a report published by the World Gold Council on April 26th. The report ranks Lebanon in first place among 105 countries worldwide.

The report praised Lebanon's ability ‎to maintain economic and financial stability and decrease public debt risks, especially given that Lebanon's public debt is in Euro treasury bills.

The gold reserve has had many positive economic influences, including upgrading Lebanon's long term sovereign debt ratings from C+ to B-, as the price of Lebanon's reserve has doubled three times, which will decrease the risks of the $50 billion public debt and decrease its service.

Lebanon has 10 million ounces [of gold] that were collected mainly during the 1960s at average price of $30.14 per ounce. Two-thirds of Lebanon's gold reserves are stored in the Central Bank, and the remaining one-third has been stored as an interest-free deposit at the US Federal Reserve since 1975. ‎

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