{"id":465046,"date":"2020-07-06T17:09:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T17:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mecouncil.org\/?p=465046"},"modified":"2022-09-20T15:56:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T15:56:21","slug":"gcc-news-roundup-gcc-economies-projected-to-shrink-qatar-saudi-arabia-and-uae-ease-restrictions-june-1-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/gcc-news-roundup-gcc-economies-projected-to-shrink-qatar-saudi-arabia-and-uae-ease-restrictions-june-1-30\/","title":{"rendered":"GCC News Roundup: GCC economies projected to shrink, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE ease restrictions (June 1-30)"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAUDI ARABIA LIMITS HAJJ ATTENDANCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Saudi official said June 23 that the hajj pilgrimage, which usually draws up to 2.5 million Muslims from all over the world, would only see at the most a few thousand pilgrims<\/a> next month due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

The kingdom\u2019s Hajj Minister Muhammad Benten said a \u201csmall and very limited\u201d number of people \u2014 even as low as just 1,000 from inside the country \u2014 would be allowed to perform the pilgrimage to ensure social distancing and crowd control.<\/p>\n

GCC ECONOMIES PROJECTED TO SHRINK BY 7.6 PERCENT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will see their economies shrink<\/a>by 7.6 percent this year, an International Monetary Fund official said on June 30, revising downwards April forecasts of nearly 3 percent.<\/p>\n

The six GCC nations are, with varying degrees, facing steep economic declines as the slowdown in business activity due to the pandemic is amplified by a price drop in hydrocarbons, which are their main source of revenue.<\/p>\n

GULF STATES CONTINUE TO IMPLEMENT ECONOMIC MEASURES <\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Saudi\u00a0central\u00a0bank\u00a0on June 1 said that it had\u00a0provided 50 billion riyals<\/a> ($13.3 billion)\u00a0to support liquidity in the\u00a0banking\u00a0sector after consumer spending collapsed in April because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Kuwait\u00a0agreed to\u00a0cut\u00a0the government entities\u2019\u00a0budget<\/a>\u00a0for the fiscal year of 2020\u201321\u00a0by at least 20 percent,\u00a0thecabinet said on Twitter June 2.<\/p>\n

Bahrain\u2019s government said on June 29 it\u00a0would pay 50 percent\u00a0of salaries for private company workers<\/a> in hard-hit sectors, state news agency BNA reported.<\/p>\n

QATAR, SAUDI ARABIA, AND UAE EASE RESTRICTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Qatar said that it would start\u00a0lifting\u00a0coronavirus restrictions<\/a>\u00a0under a\u00a0four-phase\u00a0plan starting June 15, when some mosques could reopen and flights could depart. The second phase of easing the lockdown would start on July 1, the third on August 1, and the fourth on September 1.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia said that it would end a nationwide curfew and lift restrictions<\/a> on businesses from June 21 after three months of lockdown. Restrictions would remain, however, for religious pilgrimages, international travel, and social gatherings of more than 50 people.<\/p>\n

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said that\u00a0citizens and residents would be allowed to travel<\/a>\u00a0to countries deemed low-risk for catching the coronavirus from June 23. The government posted to Twitter on June 24 saying that it had lifted its coronavirus-related curfew<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A government media office in Abu Dhabi said on June 29 that the emirate would allow people to enter<\/a>\u00a0if they had tested negative for COVID-19 in the 48 hours before arriving.<\/p>\n

OIL<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>PRICES<\/strong>\u00a0FALL <\/strong>AS<\/strong> GULF TRIO ENDS VOLUNTARY CUTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oil fell more than 3 percent<\/a> on June 8 after OPEC+ nations agreed to extend output cuts, but Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE said they would not maintain supplemental reductions that amount to more than a million barrels of daily supply.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s energy minister said on June 8 that the kingdom would boost output in July<\/a>\u00a0to match its output OPEC quota while ending voluntary deeper cuts, as it sees the need for more\u00a0oil\u00a0at home amid signs of global demand recovery.<\/p>\n

YEMEN SEPARATISTS SEIZE SOCOTRA, CEASEFIRE FALLS APART <\/strong><\/p>\n

Southern separatists on June 20 seized control of Yemen\u2019s island of Socotra<\/a> in the Arabian Sea, deposing its governor and driving out forces of the Saudi-backed government, which condemned the action as a coup.<\/p>\n

Days later, both parties agreed on a ceasefire and said they would begin talks<\/a> in Saudi Arabia to implement a peace deal.<\/p>\n

However, security officials said that fierce fighting had continued<\/a> in southern Yemen on June 25, with battles in the flashpoint Abyan province killing at least 54 fighters on both sides.<\/p>\n

UN REMOVES SAUDI-LED COALITION FROM <\/strong>BLACKLIST<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on June 15 removed a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition<\/a>\u00a0from a United Nations\u00a0blacklist, several years after it was first named and shamed for killing and injuring children in Yemen.<\/p>\n

The coalition killed or injured 222 children in Yemen last year, Guterres wrote in his annual report to the U.N. Security Council. He said the Houthis were responsible for 313 such casualties, the Yemen government forces for 96, and that both remain on the annual children and armed conflict blacklist.<\/p>\n

EMIRATI AIRLINES SLASH JOBS, CUT PAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Emirates\u2019 outgoing President Tim Clark on June 1 said that it could take the state carrier up to four\u00a0years\u00a0to resume flying to its entire network<\/a>\u00a0that has been decimated by the pandemic.\u00a0Emirates, one of the world\u2019s biggest long-haul airlines, laid off hundreds of pilots and thousands of cabin crew<\/a>on June 9 as it manages a cash crunch, and more job cuts are planned, five company sources said. The workforce of 4,300 pilots and nearly 22,000 cabin crew could shrink by almost a third from its pre-coronavirus levels, three of the sources added.<\/p>\n

Both the long-haul carrier and Etihad Airways\u00a0extended the period of reduced pay<\/a> for their staff\u00a0until September. Flydubai\u00a0extended the period indefinitely and placed dozens of pilots<\/a> on unpaid leave for a year, according to company sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAUDI ARABIA LIMITS HAJJ ATTENDANCE A Saudi official said June 23 that the hajj pilgrimage, which usually draws up to 2.5 million Muslims from all over the world, would only see at the most a few thousand pilgrims next month due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus. The kingdom\u2019s Hajj Minister Muhammad Benten… Continue reading GCC News Roundup: GCC economies projected to shrink, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE ease restrictions (June 1-30)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":465047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"publication_archive_type":[297],"class_list":["post-465046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","publication_archive_type-issue-brief","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465049,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465046\/revisions\/465049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465046"},{"taxonomy":"publication_archive_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication_archive_type?post=465046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}