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Emaar Economic City and Saudi Oger sign $132 million contract
Saudi Arabia’s Emaar Economic City (EEC), responsible for the development of King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), signed a SR494 million ($131.7 million) construction deal with Saudi Oger. Under this contract, Saudi Oger will build four residential towers in the KAEC on the Red Sea north of Jeddah. The towers, comprising 616 apartments, are expected to be completed in 16 months and include outdoor swimming pools, round the clock security and maintenance as well as spacious lobbies. ECC was established in 2006 in an aim to develop the KAEC. The city will be constituted of six components including the Industrial District and the Financial Island. Saudi Oger was established in 1978 in Saudi Arabia as a construction company by the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The company currently employs a staff of 27,000.
Egyptian CIB Q1-2007 Profits Up 35%
Egyptian Commercial International Bank (CIB) reported net profits of EGP254 million ($44.8 million) in Q1-2007, up 35% year-on-year. This increase is mainly attributed to 30.9% year-on-year increase in operating profits, driven by a 51.6% increase in net fees and commissions. The bank’s total assets reached $6.6 billion in Q1-2007, up 20.3% year-on-year. The bank’s loans rose 29.7% to 3.6 billion, while its customer deposits increased 22.3% to $5.6 billion for the same period.
IMF: GCC Countries’ GDP at $749.7 billion in 2007
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued its Regional Economic Outlook: Middle East and Central Asia, in which was stated that the nominal GDP of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is expected at $746.9 billion in 2007, up from $718 billion in 2006. However, real GDP growth rate for the GCC countries is expected to drop slightly from 6.0% in 2006 to 5.6% in 2007. This drop is mainly attributed to the decline in both oil prices as well as output of most of the GCC member countries. As such, only Saudi Arabia will witness an expected rise in its real GDP growth rate to 4.8% in 2007 from 4.6% in 2006. As for Oman, the report expects that it will maintain a stable real GDP growth rate of 6.0%, only slightly different than the 5.9% recorded last year. Kuwait’s real GDP growth rate will drop from 5.0% to 3.5%; while Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE will witness growth rates of 6.9%, 8.0% and 8.2%, down from 7.7%, 8.8% and 9.7% respectively. In terms of nominal GDP values, Saudi Arabia’s GDP will rise from $348.6 billion in 2006 to $354.9 million in 2007. Oman’s GDP will be at $38.3 billion, up from $36 billion; while Kuwait’s GDP will register $95.4 billion, down from $96.1 billion.
