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Kenya’s Trade Minister: Nairobi to Witness Qualitative Cooperation with Saudi Arabia

Kenya’s Minister of Trade and Industry Moses Kuria (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kenya’s Minister of Trade and Industry Moses Kuria (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Kenya’s Trade Minister: Nairobi to Witness Qualitative Cooperation with Saudi Arabia

Kenya’s Minister of Trade and Industry Moses Kuria (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Kenya’s Minister of Trade and Industry Moses Kuria (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Kenya’s Minister of Trade and Industry Moses Kuria said that Africa, and his country in particular, would not allow its resources to be exploited in the US-Chinese trade war.

He noted that Kenya looked forward to strengthening economic ties with Saudi Arabia by reviving axes of cooperation.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Kuria said that his recent visit to the Kingdom saw the signing of two agreements to increase bilateral trade and investments, which included the establishment of a joint business council and an e-commerce platform.

“In my discussions with the Saudis, I found vital ways to better bridge cooperation between the two countries, and we agreed to increase trade exchange, which amounts to $1.5 billion,” he underlined.

The Kenyan official pointed to his fruitful meetings with Dr. Majid Al-Qasabi, Minister of Commerce, Engineer Khaled Al-Falih, Minister of Investment, and Yasser Al-Rumayyan, CEO of the Public Investment Fund, as well as the heads of huge companies, such as Aramco, SABIC, Maaden and Aqua Power.

“Two agreements were signed to stimulate trade and launch commercial zones between a number of regions of the Kingdom in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam,” the minister revealed, adding that the agreements also sought to attract Saudi investments in Africa and launch cooperation in banking.

He expected his country to market Saudi products, such as petrochemicals and fertilizers, not only to Kenya, but also to promising African markets with a population of about 1.3 billion.

The logistics services center in Mombasa is one of the most important achievements of the Saudi-Kenyan agreements, Kuria emphasized, adding: “We are about to discover great opportunities and new areas for qualitative cooperation between the two countries.”

Expanding economic cooperation

The Kenyan Minister of Trade and Industry met with the Saudi business sector at the headquarters of the Federation of Saudi Chambers, where he discussed series of proposals to strengthen and develop his country’s economic ties with the Kingdom.

Those include the establishment of a joint business council, an e-commerce platform, an economic cooperation committee, and incentives for Saudi companies to invest in special economic zones, infrastructure and energy projects in Kenya.

Kuria stressed the importance of establishing a joint Saudi-Kenyan committee for trade and investment cooperation, calling on Saudi companies to invest in electricity, water, roads, housing, communications, mining, financial center, hotels, airports, animal production projects, and others.

Stimulating development opportunities

The Kenyan minister told Asharq Al-Awsat that he discussed with the Executive Director of the Operations Sector of the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), Eng. Faisal Al-Qahtani, the Kingdom’s efforts to support development projects and programs in his country, with the aim of achieving sustainable development goals.

Saudi Arabia has provided, through the SFD, 13 projects and development programs in the transportation, communications, energy, agriculture, health and water sectors since 1978, through soft development loans with a total value exceeding $163 million, in addition to a grant provided by Riyadh to Nairobi through the Fund.

Kuria said he reviewed with the Federation of Saudi Chambers ways to develop systems and legislation, closely identify the needs of the private sector, and work to enhance the confidence of merchants and consumer protection.

He emphasized the most important challenges facing the private sector with regard to the implementation of technical regulations and standards and obtaining a certificate of conformity and a quality mark.

The US-Chinese trade war

Commenting on the US-Chinese race to acquire investment shares in African economic resources, Kuria stressed that African countries, including Kenya, have economic and investment relations with both Washington and Beijing, as is the case with other states in the world.

The minister said he believed that Washington’s prioritization of Africa in its policies, as seen in the recent American-African summit, was built on the huge natural and human potential available in the African Continent.

Similarly, Kuria noted that China found important economic and investment opportunities in African countries, expecting many Chinese companies to enter African markets with the aim to increase investments in the continent.

“There are no limits to African cooperation with China and America,” he said.

He continued: “Africa’s interest requires dealing with everyone without subjecting its will to one party at the expense of another.”

He stressed that the common objective was the exchange of interests and expertise, and benefiting from the capabilities available to all sides.

Kuria said that the world should deal with African countries according to the developments of the stage, as the continent is no longer just a bloc occupied by crises and diseases.

The world has finally discovered that Africa is very rich economically and enjoys great, diversified and vital investment opportunities thanks to its vast fertile lands and abundant water suitable for the largest agricultural and food production in the world, he underlined.

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Business

Many in Egypt Struggle as the Costs of a Distant War Drive up Prices in Local Markets

Cars are seen on a road at Nasr City, a suburb of Cairo, Egypt May 3, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Cars are seen on a road at Nasr City, a suburb of Cairo, Egypt May 3, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
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Many in Egypt Struggle as the Costs of a Distant War Drive up Prices in Local Markets

Cars are seen on a road at Nasr City, a suburb of Cairo, Egypt May 3, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Cars are seen on a road at Nasr City, a suburb of Cairo, Egypt May 3, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Sayyed Ragheb was already struggling to keep his family afloat, earning less than $100 a month. Now he fears it will get even worse after Egypt hiked fuel prices because of the Iran war.

The father of four school-age children works day-to-day in cafes and sometimes in construction. With prices of meat and produce jumping just the past week, he worries about meeting his family’s basic needs, The AP news reported.

“This means a price increase for everything,” said Ragheb, as he served hot drinks at a cafe on a recent evening in Cairo. “This is catastrophic for someone like me.”

Egypt is one of the few countries in the Middle East not directly affected by the war, now in its third week with no sign of abating. It’s not part of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran, and it hasn’t been targeted by Iranian missile and drone fire, like Arab Gulf nations, or by Israeli bombardment, like Lebanon.

But the nation of over 108 million people is feeling the conflict’s repercussions. Soaring energy prices forced the government to implement a steep hike in the prices of subsidized fuel and cooking gas.

That is having a domino effect on the prices of other goods and services in Egypt's struggling economy. Moreover, it comes during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when families traditionally hold large dinner gatherings, and ahead of the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a major shopping season when people buy new clothes, especially for children.

Egypt is vulnerable to fuel price hikes World energy prices have surged since the US and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28. Iran retaliated by attacking oil and gas infrastructure across the Persian Gulf and effectively blocking traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's traded oil passes.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, soared from less than $70 a barrel on Feb. 27 to a peak of nearly $120 early March 9. It was hovering around $104 on Wednesday.

The jump is particularly painful for Egypt because the government dedicates a large part of its already strained budget to subsidizing gasoline, fuel and electricity.

Energy prices aren’t its only vulnerability.

Traffic through the Suez Canal, a major source of government income, had started to recover after two years of attacks on Red Sea shipping by Yemen's Houthis. Now some shipping companies are again routing traffic away from the Middle East because of the latest turmoil, and the government says it expects more losses.

Egypt, home to the ancient pyramids, also earns considerable foreign income from tourism. But arrivals are expected to plunge as travelers steer clear of the region.

If the conflict is prolonged and continues to drive up prices and reduce government revenues, the short-term economic pain could become a broader political and economic crisis, said Alexandra Blackman, an expert in Mideast politics at Cornell University.

“That will be more challenging for the regime to manage and control,” she said.

Egypt's president says the price hikes were ‘inevitable’ On March 10, the government announced a 15% hike in the price of gasoline, a 22% hike in cooking gas and a 17% hike in diesel, widely used in commercial and public transport.

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi acknowledged the pressure on people but said the increases are “inevitable” and “the least expensive” option to protect the economy.

“The requirements of the reality sometimes necessitate taking difficult measures ... to avert harsher options and more serious consequences,” he said over the weekend at an Iftar event, breaking the daily sunrise-to-sunset Ramadan fast.

He said Egypt’s consumption of oil products costs $20 billion annually, including fuel used to operate power plants.

The government imports 28% of its gasoline needs and 45% of its diesel needs, which puts pressure on the budget, said Petroleum Minister Karim Badawy.

The government announced a series of measures aimed at mitigating the impact, including reducing official overseas trips and tightening fuel consumption across the public sector. It also announced salary increases starting in July.

Egypt’s poor and middle class have already seen their purchasing power shrink over the past decade under government austerity measures. The measures included the slashing of subsidies and devaluation of Egypt’s currency as part of an ambitious reform program in 2016.

Inflation jumped from 10% in January to 11.5% in February of this year, according to official figures. The price increases are rippling across the economy in a country where a third of the population is below the poverty line, according to government statistics.

Since the new fuel prices took effect, the cost of meat has jumped 25% and fruit and vegetables rose 15-30%, according to merchants at three markets in Cairo.

Hussein Rashad, a grocer in a poorer district, said customers have become more selective, and most have reduced the amount of vegetables they buy. Some have stopped buying fruit altogether, he said.

“Many things have become out of their reach,” he said.

Ragheb, the cafe worker, said his family has tightened its budget, including resorting to the cheapest food staples. He won't be buying new clothes for his children for the upcoming Eid.

“One has no other option,” he said.

Business

Gold Falls 2% as Inflation Fears Bolster Hawkish Fed Bets

Gold bars after being inspected and polished at a refinery in Sydney (AFP)
Gold bars after being inspected and polished at a refinery in Sydney (AFP)
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Gold Falls 2% as Inflation Fears Bolster Hawkish Fed Bets

Gold bars after being inspected and polished at a refinery in Sydney (AFP)
Gold bars after being inspected and polished at a refinery in Sydney (AFP)

Gold prices fell to a one-month low on Wednesday as investors weighed the risk of a more hawkish US Federal Reserve policy stance, with high oil prices fuelling concerns about inflation.

Spot gold fell 2% to $4,903.19 per ounce as of 1216 GMT, its lowest level since February 18. US gold futures for April delivery also dropped 2% to $4,907.40, according to Reuters.

"Investors are worried about rates staying 'higher-for-longer' due to elevated energy prices ... the longer the Iran conflict goes on, the more likely that scenario," said Jamie Dutta, market analyst at Nemo.money.

While gold is viewed as a hedge against inflation and uncertainty, high interest rates curb its appeal by raising the cost of holding bullion and boosting returns on yield-bearing assets.
The Middle East conflict, in its third week, saw Iran target Tel Aviv with missiles in retaliation for Israel's assassination of its security chief, Ali Larijani, Iranian state television reported on Wednesday.

Benchmark Brent futures prices have been above $100 per barrel for the past four sessions.

Meanwhile, the Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady later in the day.

Investors will parse Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks to assess the central bank's policy view for the rest of 2026, with futures markets seeing only one quarter-percentage-point rate cut this year, in September, and another cut in late 2027.

"Long-term drivers like central bank buying, stagflation risks and diversification demand remain. That should mean higher (gold) prices by end of 2026," Dutta said.

Spot silver fell 1.2% to $78.29 per ounce, spot platinum was down 2.9% at $2,063.69, and palladium lost 2.6% to $1,560.50.

Business

UAE Bank Stocks Jump after Central Bank Launches Resilience Package

A man on a boat with an UAE flag near Dubai Creek, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 5, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Rula Rouhana
A man on a boat with an UAE flag near Dubai Creek, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 5, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Rula Rouhana
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UAE Bank Stocks Jump after Central Bank Launches Resilience Package

A man on a boat with an UAE flag near Dubai Creek, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 5, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Rula Rouhana
A man on a boat with an UAE flag near Dubai Creek, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 5, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Rula Rouhana

The United Arab Emirates central bank (CBUAE) on Tuesday unveiled a package to help bolster banks' liquidity, marking its most significant policy move since the pandemic, as Gulf economies move to weather the impact of the Iran crisis.

UAE banks, whose stocks have seen double-digit losses since the war began last month, jumped on Wednesday morning, with Dubai's Emirates NBD and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank gaining over 6%, and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank up over 5%.

First Abu Dhabi Bank was losing around 1% by 0825 GMT.

The war, now in its third week and without tan end in sight, has thrown global energy markets and transport into chaos as the conflict has spread.

The UAE's financial system "has demonstrated resilience during the current extraordinary circumstances affecting the global and regional markets without any material impact on the banking sector's health and payment systems," the CBUAE board said in a statement.

Under the package approved on Tuesday, banks will gain enhanced access to ⁠reserve balances of up to 30% of the cash reserve requirement and term liquidity facilities in both UAE dirhams and US dollars, the CBUAE said.

Other measures include stopgap relief in liquidity and stable funding ratios as well as the temporary release of the countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB) and capital conservation buffer (CCB), it said.

While the measures introduced on Tuesday are larger than a similar package introduced to withstand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, "asset quality pressures could still emerge should the conflict persist and its economic effects deepen," the bank said.

Gulf banks could face domestic deposit outflows of $307 billion if the Middle East conflict deepens, S&P Global Ratings said in a report on Monday. The ratings agency said, however, that it had seen no evidence of major outflows of foreign or local funding from banks.

The CBUAE said in Tuesday's statement that the overall stock of liquidity held by UAE banks at the regulator, combined with their net eligible assets for central bank operations, had reached close to $250 billion, of which banks' reserve balances exceed $109 billion.