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Sunday, 04 December 2016
Published inDecember 2016

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CRIF – Dun & Bradstreet is pleased to bring to you the latest edition of our newsletter ‘CRIF Gulf Insights’ (CGI). CGI will keep you informed about the current trends in the GCC markets and highlight key events in the regional and global economy.

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CRIF Dun & Bradstreet Communications Team

Crif Gulf Insights 04/12/2016

CGI | Issue 46 | December 2016

Country Risk Update – Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has enjoyed a series of strong structural current account surpluses over the past decade, allowing it to build up significant FX reserves and reduce its foreign debt. However, this situation is now in reverse, with the recent sharp drop in the oil price forcing the government to draw down on these reserves and increase its debt levels. Meanwhile, financial sector risk remains moderate, as capital buffers are at healthy levels and the ratio of non-performing loans to total lending is relatively low – although liquidity is starting to dry up.

Business, Finance and Commodity News

Saudi government injects cash into economy following oil-linked slowdown

Saudi Arabia’s government has begun injecting large amounts of money into the economy, which could boost growth at the end of this year after a sharp slowdown due to low oil prices, according to data provided by central bank.
Its finances strained by shrunken oil revenues, Riyadh raised $17.5bn last month in its first international bond issue – the biggest emerging market bond sale on record.

New $571m Abu Dhabi – Dubai highway opens to ease congestion

A new $571 million 62km highway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai has been inaugurated. Named the Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Road, the highway is one of the biggest infrastructure projects implemented under Abu Dhabi 2030 Urban Structure Framework Plan. This will alleviate traffic congestion and bring down the number of accidents.

Dubai airport passenger traffic crosses 69 million between January and October

Passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, increased 2.7 per cent from a year earlier to 6.4 million people in October. In the first 10 months of this year, traffic grew to 69.36 million people, the airport was on track to reaching its target of 83 million passengers in 2016.

Kuwait to raise traffic fines tenfold from January

Kuwait is looking to increase penalties for a number of traffic offences starting from January 2017. The offences include parking vehicles in spaces designated for physically disabled individuals. The increase will be the second time this year Kuwait has raised fees for traffic fines. In February, it doubled some fines for traffic violations but applied it only to expats.It is not clear if the January hike will apply to both expats and nationals.

Commercial Bank of Qatar launches 5-year plan to stem losses

Commercial Bank of Qatar will cut its exposure to the property market and lend more to the public sector as it set out a turnaround plan under its new chief executive aimed at stemming a dismal earnings run as more loans soured.
The Gulf Arab state’s third-largest lender by assets, like other banks in the region, has seen bad loans rise steeply due to the fallout of lower oil and gas prices on the wider economy

Saudi central bank foreign assets slump $10.8bn in October

Net foreign assets at Saudi Arabia’s central bank shrank by $10.8 billion from a month earlier to $535.9 billion in October, as the government liquidated reserves to cover a large budget gap caused by low oil prices. Assets tumbled by 16.3 percent from a year earlier to their lowest level since December 2011. They reached a record high of $737 billion in August 2014 before starting to fall.

Commodity Tracker

D&B Article of the Week

BI’s Anticipatory Analytics the Path Toward Future Truth

Almost everyone is familiar with the image of the eccentric fortune-teller gazing into her crystal ball to boldly predict the future. In the business world, teams of analytic experts are doing this everyday; they’re just using data instead of a crystal ball to get a glimpse into the future.

Thanks to advanced analytics, organizations are able to understand potential outcomes and evaluate how issues can be addressed. By generating predictive models based on all the data being captured, a new level of transparency and foresight has been created that helps shape future business strategy based on historical trends. This is called predicative analytics, and it is “the fastest growing segment of the business intelligence (BI) and analytics software market,” according to Information Management. Read More..

CRIF Highlights

CRIF and Mitigan partner to develop a full-fledged credit and insurance bureau in Tunisia
CRIF has been awarded the international tender issued by Mitigan, a Tunisian entity with the scope of providing information and risk management services, which is officially authorized by the Data Protection Authority to establish a full-fledged credit bureau in Tunisia.

Ohio Credit Union League Show – InVest48
CRIF Lending Solutions will be present at the Ohio Credit Union League Show, InVest48, the largest gathering of Ohio credit union leaders.

Deltavista GmbH renamed CRIF GmbH
After the globally active credit reporting agency CRIF acquired all shares in Deltavista GmbH in Germany in July, Deltavista GmbH changed its name to CRIF GmbH. Due to the rebranding, an important milestone in the integration into the CRIF group was achieved. That offers German customers a full range of services and products relating to risk control, creditworthiness, fraud prevention and address management through companies Bürgel GmbH and CRIF GmbH.

Upcoming Events this Week

PayExpo MENA 2016
Dec 5 – Dec 7
InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City

Exhibition Afghanistan
Dec 6 – Dec 7
JW Mariott Marquis Hotel, Dubai

Reading Recommendation of the Week

Disrupted

“Disrupted” is born of Lyons’s attempt to cross over from covering tech to getting a piece of the action in the second, current Internet bubble. He lucks out to a degree that is enviable, not because of his payday, but because the company he ends up working for, HubSpot, a marketing-software firm in Cambridge, Mass., is tailor-made for someone like him to write about.

Release Date:
April 8, 2016