With inflation up at 35 percent, and amid a severe foreign currency crunch, the Egyptian pound is plunging and the US dollar has become hard to come by. The country's highly import-reliant economy, dominated by military-linked enterprises and with a fondness for infrastructure mega-projects, has been hit hard by a...

Beirut, Lebanon -- Acting Lebanese Central Bank Governor Wassim Mansouri has said the bank will not be providing government lending to cover Lebanon's 2023 state budget deficit. This applies to both the Lebanese lira and the US dollar. "The Central Bank has no plans to address the nation's deficit through...

Damascus, Syria - Syria's reentry into the Arab League in May was anticipated to herald positive changes for the country's fortunes. Diplomatic relations warmed, with a normalization agreement signed with Saudi Arabia and a tense, Russia-brokered meeting between Turkish and Syrian foreign ministers. However, despite these diplomatic strides, Syria's economic...

Equities enjoyed a strong run-up last week, partly on the back of hopes that Beijing would unveil a raft of economic stimulus to go with two interest rate cuts. Expectations have been high that officials would provide help for the struggling property sector and introduce measures to kickstart consumer activity.

Foreign currency reserves, representing 94 percent of total assets, fell nearly 2 percent year-on-year in May to SAR 1.56 trillion ($416 billion). The majority of Saudi Arabia's reserve assets are held in US dollars (about 70 percent)

London, UK--Volume of trade exchanges between the UK and Iraq has exceeded one billion dollars and imports and exports between the two nations have been significantly growing, a senior British official said on Friday. Lord Tariq Ahmad, the British Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa and South...

Lebanon and the IMF reached a conditional agreement in April 2022 on a $3-billion-dollar loan needed to save the country's economy, in free fall since 2019. But nearly a year after Beirut signed the agreement, officials have yet to enact the substantial changes required to kickstart the 46-month financing program.

Lebanon's economic meltdown, described by the World Bank as one of the worst in recent global history, has plunged most of the population into poverty, according to the UN. Many of the hundreds protesting on Wednesday were retired servicemen whose army pensions have lost most of their value, and depositors...

Officially pegged at 15,000 to the dollar, the pound was trading at 100,000 against the greenback, dealers said -- a dizzying plunge from 1,507 before the economic crisis hit in 2019. The currency's market value was at around 60,000 to the dollar in late January.

Lebanon's cash-strapped banks have imposed strict restrictions on withdrawals, barring depositors from accessing their savings, especially those in US dollars.

With Lebanon's political and economic crisis showing no signs of abating, its currency on Wednesday hit a record low against the dollar on the black market. The pound has lost more than 95 percent of its value against the greenback since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2019.

Cairo, Egypt-- Moody's has lowered Egypt's sovereign rating by one notch to B3 from B2 on Tuesday, citing the country's reduced external buffers and shock absorption capacity. The agency changed its outlook for Egypt to stable from negative. "Moody's does not expect Egypt's liquidity and external positions to rebound quickly," the...

Global main stock markets rallied as investors fished for bargain shares and shrugged off losses elsewhere, but oil prices fell as concerns over the global economy persist. London stocks were lifted by official data showing UK retail sales rose 0.6 percent in October, rebounding from a 1.5-percent slump in September....

The British pound sank against the dollar on political uncertainty after the resignation of UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, while weak economic data added to the turmoil. The dollar strengthened also on expectations that the US Federal Reserve would press ahead with its program of bumper interest rate hikes to...

The crisis-hit PM, elected Conservative leader just six weeks ago on a tax-slashing platform, announced her resignation Thursday. Her budget, peppered with tax cuts and delivered last month, sought to boost growth in Britain's recession-threatened economy and freeze energy prices to ease a cost of living crisis. However, the costly...

The exchange rate reached more than 5,000 Syrian pounds to the US dollar for the first time since the start of the conflict more than a decade ago. Syria's official exchange rate has stood at around 3,015 pounds to the greenback since Sept-- compared to 47 pounds to the dollar...

Prime Minister Liz Truss on Sunday conceded she should have better prepared Britain for her plan, which went further than many had expected.

The exchange rate has been officially pegged at 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar since 1997, but will drop to 15,000 to the greenback at the end of October. The pound, however, traded at more than double that value on the black market on Wednesday, selling for more than 38,400...

Continuing with its slide against the dollar, the pound hit a record low on fears about the UK economy after the government presented a huge tax-cutting budget. Countries around the world are battling high inflation and seeking to curb it with interest rate hikes. But analysts fear such moves can...

Stock markets tumbled, the pound crashed against the dollar and oil prices slumped on growing recession fears after central banks this week hiked interest rates to fight inflation. Monetary policymakers have been forced to go on the offensive, warning that short-term hits to economies are less painful than the long-term...

Egypt has raised customs dollar to its highest level in history, a measure likely to inflate the price of imported goods.

Lebanese activists Friday rolled out mock banknotes featuring paintings of a gutted central bank or the Beirut port explosion to denounce high-level corruption that has helped to wreck the country.

Six currencies account for 90 percent of transactions in the Arab world, said Dr. Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al Hamidy, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF). The currencies are the Emirati Dirham, the Saudi Riyal, the Egyptian Pound, the Jordanian Dinar, the...

The value of the Egyptian pound shed 13 percent against the US dollar on Monday, registering 17.80 pounds against the greenback after a recent rise in inflation.

The current midmarket rate for a US dollar is LBP1,500, while the black-market rate is more than LBP23,000 to the dollar.

The midmarket rate for the Lebanese pound is around 1,500 to the dollar, but the reality on the ground is that the black-market rate of 30,000 prevails.

Syrian lawmakers have approved a draft budget for 2022 of $5.3 billion, down from $6.8 billion this year, as a spiraling economic crisis hits public finances and threatens subsidies on essential goods. A decade of war, Western sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic have devastated the Syrian economy, pushing most of...

Inflation in Syria is soaring just as fast as it is in neighboring Turkey, with basic food items such as bread selling at record prices and purchasing power at its lowest ever. And when the price of a bag of flatbread stops rising, locals say, the amount of bread inside...

Some observers predict the Lebanese pound could drop to a rate of 40,000 against the dollar or worse in the coming weeks. The financial crisis that started in 2019 is the worst in the country's history and has left four in five Lebanese living under the poverty line.

The new record, topping a previous low of more than 24,000 earlier this week, adds to the troubles of the newly-formed Lebanese government.

The Lebanese pound sank to a new low on the black market Wednesday, with no end in sight to the economic and political crisis plunging ever-growing numbers into poverty. According to websites monitoring the black market rate, the pound was trading at 24,000 to the dollar or 16 times less...

Lebanon’s Information Minister George Kordahi has said that the country needs $1 billion to bring up the value of the Lebanese pound against the dollar. He acknowledged the fact that the demand for dollars is high, especially since diesel fuel is sold today in dollar terms.

The Mediterranean country is battling what the World Bank has described as one of the planet's worst financial crises since the 1850s

 Gasoline price rise likely to ease the shortage of fuel Lebanon is experiencing one of the worst economic crises in history Faced with an acute shortage of gasoline, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab approved a proposal to finance fuel imports at a rate of 3,900 Lebanese pounds to the...

Price 20 litres of 95-octane petrol shot up from $10.6 to $40.6 Lebanese officials blame smuggling to Syria, stockpiling for shortages Lebanon hiked fuel prices by more than 30 percent Tuesday as it reduced subsidies that have eaten away at the central bank's foreign currency reserves amid a painful economic...

Lebanese protesters try to storm central bank offices in two major cities Money changers tell AFP that the pound was trading at 17,300-17,500 to the greenback on the black market Dozens of angry Lebanese took to the streets of the northern city of Tripoli to denounce the depreciation and "difficult...