Economics
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has pledged to push forward salary increases for civil servants and teachers within a three-week deadline as private school teachers agreed to resume classes in the meantime.
Egypt expects to seal a long-delayed $4.8 billion loan deal before parliamentary elections start next month, the finance minister said on Sunday, as the country runs dangerously low on foreign currency reserves and the budget deficit soars.
Elsewhere in Egypt, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, pledged $250 million to support Egypt’s “future as a democracy”.
The finance minister of the Palestinian Authority has resigned amid deepening economic malaise in the West Bank.
Inflation in Saudi Arabia is running at acceptable levels, the country’s central bank chief said on Sunday, playing down concerns that the economy could be overheating.
Oman’s oil production including condensates rose by four per cent in 2012 to an average of 918,000 barrels per day (bpd) thanks largely to gains from enhanced oil recovery projects, an oil and gas ministry official said on Sunday.
Companies
Jordan's national carrier Royal Jordanian has stopped flying over Syrian airspace for security reasons, the airline's head has said.
Qatar Telecom reported a 14.6 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit on Sunday as higher revenue in its home market, Indonesia and Iraq offset declining earnings from Kuwaiti unit Wataniya and Oman's Nawras.
