Middle East to borrow $136bn in 2017

Middle East and Northern African (MENA) sovereign borrowing will total $136bn in 2017, S&P Global Ratings says in a new report.

That will be 20 per cent down on the figure recorded in 2016.

In 2017, $28bn of MENA sovereigns’ gross borrowing will be used to refinance maturing long-term debt, compared with $24bn in 2016, resulting in an estimated net borrowing requirement of $108 billion.

S&P projects that MENA sovereigns’ commercial debt stock will reach $720bn by end-2017, a 19 per cent increase from 2016. The total debt stock will reach $820bn, a year-on-year increase of $135bn. The share of noncommercial official debt in total sovereign debt is set to rise to 14 per cent of total debt as of year-end 2017, from 13 per cent in 2016. S&P says it expects outstanding short-term commercial debt (debt with an original maturity of less than one year) will reach $106bn at year-end 2017.