Saudi Arabia

While a new Moody’s Investors Services says that Saudi Arabia’s credit outlook is stable and buffered by a strong fiscal position, the International Monetary Fund’s regional director believes that that […]

Although OPEC and allies have never officially targeted any specific price of oil with the production cut agreement, each member of the pact knows very well where they want oil […]

The geopolitical tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran is reflected in the oil market and has repercussions on China, which imports about 16% of its oil from Saudi Arabia. It remains to be seen how Saudi oil sales to China will be handled. Oil futures in yuan will be in direct competition with oil futures in US dollars when it is a question of oil destined for China.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced the Value Added Tax (VAT) for the first time from Monday.

It is a five per cent tax on most goods and services to boost revenue. The VAT will be applied on food, clothes, electronics and gasoline, phone, water and electricity bills, as well as hotel reservations, the BBC reported. The five percent sales tax applies to most goods and services and analysts project that the two governments could raise as much as $21 billion in 2018, equivalent to 2.0 percent of GDP.

Swiss Federal prosecutors said on Monday that the Swiss authorities were examining information provided by banks about possible suspicious transactions related to Saudi accounts.

The comments came in response to a report published in the Financial Times, which quoted unnamed sources who claimed that the Swiss banks began reporting suspicious activities within the accounts of some Saudi clients.

While the stock market seems to be hiccupping and frightening the bulls, the turmoil in Saudi Arabia has attracted the notice of the financial world because the agreement between Saudi Arabia and the US regarding the use of the dollar as the preferred currency for oil transactions may be coming to an end or at least about to be changed significantly. The rapprochement with China and Russia has received widespread publicity, and MBS, the Crown Prince, is bent on bringing change and progress to the Kingdom. Allowing women to drive provided that they are accompanied by a family member is revolutionary for the Middle East country. One can therefore assume that MBS is serious about his undertaking to bring the future closer and establish a new modern city in the desert.

It is ironic that the fate of the US dollar depends on whether Saudi Arabia will continue to insist on accepting only US dollars for oil. The Free Thought Project had a good article by Jay Syrmopoulos on this subject on 16th July 2017, Russia and China Declare All Out War on US Petrodollar – Prepare for Exclusive Trade in Gold, which was picked up by Activist Post. It is the position of the US dollar as the main world reserve currency that has made it possible for the US to continue in its role as the global policeman or, as some would have it, the imperialist bully.

Eleven more oil producing nations have agreed to cut their production to try to boost global crude oil prices. The deal follows an announcement by OPEC 11 days ago that its members would collectively cut production by just over 1 million barrels a day.

Large oil exporters, including Russia and Mexico, said they would mimic the Opec protocol agreed at the end of November and adjust their own production to 300,000 and 100,000 barrels a day respectively from the start of 2017. Oil prices have languished at less than or around $50 a barrel since the US became largely self-sufficient on shale from 2014 onwards; but with Opec’s announcement that production would be cut on 30 November, prices recently surged more than 15 per cent, rising last week briefly above $55.