ECONOMY

Egypt has sharply devalued the currency three times since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 exposed vulnerabilities in the country's finances.

The Southeast Asian country's economy has bounced back strongly from a pandemic slump, expanding at a 22-year high of 8.7% in 2022, but its outlook for this year has been clouded by cooling global demand.

India's monetary policy committee is likely to deliver the expected 25-basis point (bps) rate hike in April, even as global markets lowered rate hike bets from the U.S.

India's industrial output rose a bigger than expected 5.2% in January compared with the same month last year as strong domestic urban demand boosted electricity generation and manufacturing, despite weakening exports.

The UAE aims to double the size of its economy by 2031 and diversify away from hydrocarbons.

Pakistan's central bank is widely expected to raise its key policy rate by 200 basis points in an off-cycle meeting on Thursday as it struggles to unlock critical funding from the IMF, a Reuters poll showed.

The South Asian country is deeply in debt, and needs to introduce tough tax and utility price increases to unlock another tranche of a $6.5 billion International Monetary Fund bailout and avoid defaulting.

India's economic growth likely slowed further in the October-December quarter amid weakening demand and is set to lose more momentum as a series of interest rate hikes weigh on activity, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

"The consultations with the IMF are in the final stages. We expect to conclude the consultations soon, even within the week," Hamed Yaqoob Sheikh, the top official in the finance ministry, told Reuters.

The Reserve Bank of India will increase its main interest rate by 25 basis points to 6.75% in April and then pause until the end of 2023, according to a Reuters poll of economists who also said risks were for the terminal rate to go even higher.

During the first seven months of the current fiscal year, the country's current account deficit decreased by 67% to $3.8 billion, compared with a deficit of $11.6 billion during the same period last year.

"We have a number of tensions in those countries," including debt levels and high inflation, Ferid Belhaj told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai.

The central bank said that its policy stance remains focused on the withdrawal of accommodation, with four out of six members voting in favour of that position.

Inflation is expected to be below 5% in February on lower oil prices, senior commerce ministry official Wichanun Niwatjinda told a news conference.

Sharif made the comments in a meeting of civil and military leaders in the northwestern city of Peshawar he chaired to prepare a response to Monday's mosque bombing that killed more than 100 people.

The reading delivers a welcome boost for Erdogan heading into a close presidential and parliamentary election in which he will seek to extend his mercurial rule until 2028.

On Wednesday, the government in its 2023/24 budget set a fiscal deficit target of 5.9% of gross domestic product for the coming financial year, down from the current year's target of 6.4% of GDP. India's fiscal year starts on April 1.

The South Asian nation's economy is expected to grow 6.0% to 6.8% next fiscal year, the government said this week, slower than the 7.0% growth projected for the current year amid faltering global demand.

Year-on-year inflation in January was recorded at 27.55 percent, its highest since May 1975.

It desperately needs the International Monetary Fund to release an overdue tranche of $1.1 billion, leaving $1.4 billion remaining in a stalled bailout programme set to end in June.

Cash is now king in Lebanon, where a three-year economic meltdown has led the country's once-lauded financial sector to atrophy.

India's annual pre-budget economic survey is likely to peg GDP growth at 6-6.8% for 2023-24, according to a source.

Oil prices climbed in early Asia trade on Monday, supported by tensions in the Middle East following a drone attack in Iran and as Beijing pledged over the weekend to promote a consumption recovery which would support fuel demand.

On Thursday, the Pakistani rupee fell 9.6% against the dollar in the inter-bank market, the biggest one-day drop in over two decades, a day after foreign exchange companies removed a cap on the exchange rate.

Presenting a quarterly economic report, the bank's Governor Sahap Kavcioglu stood by previous year-end annual inflation forecasts for 2023 and 2024 of 22.3% and 8.8% respectively.

The 2023 growth forecast is well behind an International Monetary Fund forecast of 2.7% that was issued in October and is due to be updated next week.

Officials and economists said the large size of recent deficits and a need to gain investor confidence was forcing fiscal caution on the government,

Crude oil prices rebounded on Wednesday as demand recovery hopes in top importer China following its exit from COVID-19 pandemic curbs provided support after prices dropped in the previous session on concerns about global economic growth.

Economic growth in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was expected at 3.3% this year, down from 6.4% last year.