News

The AMF follows closely the developments of the Tunisian economy and the challenges it faces due to the current global circumstances and works through a fruitful partnership with the Tunisian government to help the country address the different challenges in the most effective way, as the Tunisian economy witnessed positive developments during 2022, recording actual growth rates of about 2.4 percent and 2.8 percent for the first and second quarters of the aforementioned year, respectively, driven by the recovery of the agricultural sector,  increased phosphate production, the growth of the manufacturing sector, especially the textiles, clothing and leather industries, and improvement in tourism revenues and remittances of the Tunisians expatriates.

In line with its continuous efforts to support the decision-making process in the Arab countries, the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) has released a study titled “Implications of Capital Inflows on financial stability in Arab countries”. This study sheds the light on the effect of capital inflows, whether it is direct investment or portfolio investment or other investments, on financial stability on a set of Arab countries and provides analytical framework for Arab countries that help them in improving their efforts in enhancing financial stability.

In this context, paper investigates the impact of net capital inflows on credit to the private sector as a share of gross domestic product. It tries to assess to what extent net capital inflows could lead to excessive credit growth and, hence, undermine financial stability. The results show that net capital inflows may have a negative long run impact on financial stability in the Arab countries through increasing credit growth.

Abu Dhabi, 27 October 2022: In a ceremony hosted by the Arab Monetary Fund, Mr. Tarek Raouf,  Chief Executive Officer of Egyptian Banks Co. for Technological Advancement (EBC), a payment system operator owned by the Central Bank of Egypt, and a group of commercial banks, and Mr. Mehdi Manaa, CEO of Buna, the cross-border payment system operated by Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization “ARPCSO”, owned by The Arab Monetary Fund “AMF”,  signed today a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) putting in place a framework of cooperation between Buna and EBC.  The ceremony was held in the AMF headquarter in Abu Dhabi, UAE, under the patronage of H.E Dr. Abdulrahman A. Al Hamidy, Director General Chairman of the Board of the Arab Monetary Fund.

Abu Dhabi, 26^th October 2022: Buna (the cross-border payment system operated by Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization “ARPCSO”, owned by The Arab Monetary Fund “AMF”), holds tomorrow a workshop to share updates on its strategic initiatives.

The workshop comprises different topics to update the Buna community on several key developments such as the Buna’s approach to cybersecurity and the different enhancements introduced recently to cater for the growing needs of our participants in terms of level of support and scope of service.

In addition, the workshop will be the occasion to announce a new strategic partnership and a major step towards building the instant payment hub for the Arab world and beyond.

Abu Dhabi, 15th September 2022: Buna (the cross-border payment system operated by Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization “ARPCSO”, owned by The Arab Monetary Fund “AMF”), holds today a workshop to share latest achievements and new milestones with its large community.

The agenda of the workshop comprises a panel of senior-level speakers from Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and Arab National Bank (ANB) who will share their practical experiences in utilizing Buna system. The workshop will also cover different other topics to update the Buna community on the progress achieved on key technological and regulatory matters as well as the evolution of the participation and payments activity in Buna.

Globally, a circular economy (CE) is being promoted as a policy to achieve economic, environmental, and social sustainability. A significant reason for this is the increasing recognition of CE indices as effective tools in preventing resource waste and reducing negative environmental impacts. The aim of this study, therefore, is to establish a regional index based on CE indicators that can be used to measure countries' transition toward circular economies implementation.

Buna (the payment system operated by Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization “ARPCSO”, owned by The Arab Monetary Fund “AMF”) and Standard Chartered held a ceremony today in the AMF premises to announce the live operation of euro cross-border payments in Buna.

The service is now activated by multiple participant banks from various Arab countries, with more participation expected in the upcoming weeks to benefit from the real-time settlement feature of euro payments taking place in Buna across borders in compliance with global best practices and international standards.

An understanding of the volatility structure of foreign exchange rates is fundamental to assessing investment risks in the forex market. This study, therefore, analyzes the symmetric and asymmetric information in the volatility structure of selected Arab exchange rate markets.

The study applied the EGARCH model for analyzing the volatility structure of selected currencies using the daily data of rate of return of real exchange rates over the period from January 3, 2017, to June 2, 2022. These currencies are the Saudi Riyal, Kuwait Dinar, Bahrain Dinar, Egyptian Pound, Algerian Dinar, Tunisian Dinar, and Moroccan Dirham.

In line with its continuous efforts to support the decision-making process in Arab countries, the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) has released the Seventeenth Edition of the Arab Economic Outlook Report, including growth and inflation forecasts for Arab economies for 2022 and 2023.

The report indicated that the global economy is experiencing challenges related to the global supply chains and high commodity prices, which raise concerns about global food security. As a result, international institutions have reduced their forecasts for global economic growth issued in January 2022.

Abu Dhabi, 11th August 2022: Buna, the cross-border payment system owned by the AMF, holds today a workshop to shed light on several key capabilities and live experiences that are of interest to Buna’s banking community, namely an overview on its Application Programming Interface (API), Buna’s plans for extending its operating window, and various compliance aspects including sharing live experiences and findings.

The workshop will host more than 200 senior officials representing central banks, along with various institutions from the financial, banking, and payment sectors in the region and beyond.