Don’t look at China, the threat might come from Saudi Arabia
You probably have heard this numerous times before; the Chinese position in US Treasuries is outright dangerous and China could single-handedly force the US Dollar to weaken quite substantially. Whilst that’s definitely correct, it sure looks like one is overlooking the impact the low oil price has on the public finances of Saudi Arabia.
As the country is mainly depending on exporting its oil to keep its government budget balances, the Kingdom has been hit extremely hard by the 60% drop in the oil price as an almost certain budget surplus was suddenly converted in a huge budget deficit. In fact even during the darkest hours of the Global Financial Crisis, not a lot of countries saw their government budgets dip into the red by in excess of 20%!
Source: The Guardian
The main problem is the fact Saudi Arabia had been using an assumed oil price of $100/barrel to balance its budget and as the current oil price is less than $50/barrel, a lot of government officials will be scratching their heads. A huge budget deficit also means the Saudi’s will be scrambling to get their hands on cash and earlier this year the country has completed the first debt offering in almost 10 years!
But that won’t really help much. Raising a few billion dollars in government debt won’ offset a lot of the expected $150B deficit and the officials in Riyadh will continue to target the country’s sovereign wealth fund (well, it’s not ‘officially’ a sovereign wealth fund, but just an investment division of the central bank) which is the third largest in the world and had in excess of $750Bin assets before the oil price started to fall.
Source: tradingeconomics.com
The Saudi Arabian wealth fund was an excellent performer as it yielded an average 11% return over the past 10 years and this might be the country’s best bet to get out of the current oil crisis. But that’s also where the US Dollar comes into play.
And zooming in:
Source: International Monetary Fund
The original purpose of the fund was to make sure the Saudi economy remained relatively stable, and the assets could and should be monetized to soften sudden economic shocks. To serve this purpose, the country’s cash was invested in low-risk and highly liquid investments, such as US Treasury bills. It’s impossible to know how many hundreds of billions Saudi Arabia has invested in US debt securities as the American government doesn’t want you to know how which gulf country owns how much of the US debt (Government Accounting Office, 1979). But as the Saudi’s have virtually pegged their currency to the US Dollar, we would dare to bet in excess of half of the fund’s assets are held in US debt securities as it fits the bill in terms of a) liquidity, b) ‘safety’ and c) currency protection.
Even if you’d assume Saudi Arabia would be able to raise $30B per year in government debt, it still has a $120B gap to cover and the only decent solution would be to start selling US debt. This could put additional pressure on the financial markets as it won’t be easy to absorb this kind of selling.
That’s yet another reason why the Federal Reserve won’t be able to increase the interest rates anytime soon. Saudi Arabia’s gradual selling could be taken care of by the market but imagine the USA would start to increase its interest rates as well. A snowball-effect isn’t out of the question at all, and the pressure on the government bonds would be even higher and instead of a stronger Dollar, the US Dollar would be weaker. It will be extremely interesting to see more updates from the Saudi’s to see how much of the US treasuries it has already sold and how it plans to tackle its government deficit.
Because no matter what happens (excluding a sudden jump in the oil price), in 4 years from now, Saudi Arabia’s foreign reserves will be depleted. And that will most definitely fuel additional unrest in the Middle East.
You probably have heard this numerous times before; the Chinese position in US Treasuries is outright dangerous and China could single-handedly force the US Dollar to weaken quite substantially. Whilst that’s definitely correct, it sure looks like one is overlooking the impact the low oil price has on the public finances of Saudi Arabia.
As the country is mainly depending on exporting its oil to keep its government budget balances, the Kingdom has been hit extremely hard by the 60% drop in the oil price as an almost certain budget surplus was suddenly converted in a huge budget deficit. In fact even during the darkest hours of the Global Financial Crisis, not a lot of countries saw their government budgets dip into the red by in excess of 20%!
Source: The Guardian
The main problem is the fact Saudi Arabia had been using an assumed oil price of $100/barrel to balance its budget and as the current oil price is less than $50/barrel, a lot of government officials will be scratching their heads. A huge budget deficit also means the Saudi’s will be scrambling to get their hands on cash and earlier this year the country has completed the first debt offering in almost 10 years!
But that won’t really help much. Raising a few billion dollars in government debt won’ offset a lot of the expected $150B deficit and the officials in Riyadh will continue to target the country’s sovereign wealth fund (well, it’s not ‘officially’ a sovereign wealth fund, but just an investment division of the central bank) which is the third largest in the world and had in excess of $750Bin assets before the oil price started to fall.
Source: tradingeconomics.com
The Saudi Arabian wealth fund was an excellent performer as it yielded an average 11% return over the past 10 years and this might be the country’s best bet to get out of the current oil crisis. But that’s also where the US Dollar comes into play.
And zooming in:
Source: International Monetary Fund
The original purpose of the fund was to make sure the Saudi economy remained relatively stable, and the assets could and should be monetized to soften sudden economic shocks. To serve this purpose, the country’s cash was invested in low-risk and highly liquid investments, such as US Treasury bills. It’s impossible to know how many hundreds of billions Saudi Arabia has invested in US debt securities as the American government doesn’t want you to know how which gulf country owns how much of the US debt (Government Accounting Office, 1979). But as the Saudi’s have virtually pegged their currency to the US Dollar, we would dare to bet in excess of half of the fund’s assets are held in US debt securities as it fits the bill in terms of a) liquidity, b) ‘safety’ and c) currency protection.
Even if you’d assume Saudi Arabia would be able to raise $30B per year in government debt, it still has a $120B gap to cover and the only decent solution would be to start selling US debt. This could put additional pressure on the financial markets as it won’t be easy to absorb this kind of selling.
That’s yet another reason why the Federal Reserve won’t be able to increase the interest rates anytime soon. Saudi Arabia’s gradual selling could be taken care of by the market but imagine the USA would start to increase its interest rates as well. A snowball-effect isn’t out of the question at all, and the pressure on the government bonds would be even higher and instead of a stronger Dollar, the US Dollar would be weaker. It will be extremely interesting to see more updates from the Saudi’s to see how much of the US treasuries it has already sold and how it plans to tackle its government deficit.
Because no matter what happens (excluding a sudden jump in the oil price), in 4 years from now, Saudi Arabia’s foreign reserves will be depleted. And that will most definitely fuel additional unrest in the Middle East.
__________________________________________
Is Russia Imploding In Front Of Our Eyes... Again?
Certain countries are starting to feel the pain of the low oil prices. In a previous column, we already warned you about the potential problems in Saudi Arabia that might spill over to the USA. Saudi Arabia was quickly moving towards a government deficit of almost 22% of the GDP, resulting in a shortage of $150B on the total budget in 2015.
Keep in mind that preliminary expectation was based on an oil price of $40-45 per barrel and as the oil price has continued to fall, Saudi Arabia’s finances have gotten worse by the week (and even by the day).
But Saudi Arabia isn’t the only country that is feeling a huge impact from the low oil prices, as Russia for instance might have some more issues to dig itself out of the current government deficit hole. Whereas Saudi Arabia was smart enough to put quite a bit of cash in its sovereign wealth fund (which was the third largest in the world) to reduce the impact of the economic shocks, the Russian economy isn’t as well-prepared as the Saudi Arabian economy.
Even though Russia says it has been preparing for an average oil price of approximately 40-60 dollars per barrel during the next several years, we remain unconvinced about the country’s readiness to indeed be able to cope with a continuously low oil price, and it’s really hard to imagine the country can indeed survive it at all.
Source: Bricplusnews.com
Indeed, at the Davos forum in Switzerland, Russia has quietly tried to open the door with the international community to try to find a way to reduce the pressure on the Russian economy, and the government officials are hoping to see for instance the European Union become more flexible with the economic sanctions as that will very likely be the only way to avert a horrible economic crisis (and potential collapse of the country’s entire economic and financial system).
Since the beginning of this year, the Russian Ruble has lost approximately 10% of its value, indicating the market is also becoming increasingly reluctant to believe Russia’s expectations, and the low oil price has sent the Russian Ruble tumbling as the currency lost approximately 60% of its value since May last year. Not only will the government budget deficit be much higher than anticipated (the expected $50B deficit was based on an oil price of $50/barrel, whilst the current oil price is trading quite a bit lower than that level.
Source: Google Finance
In our opinion, Russia has approximately 12-18 months left at the current oil price before the country reaches a point of no return , as its foreign reserves are dwindling due to the lower oil revenues. And that could actually be a dangerous situation, as Putin isn’t exactly the kind of person who’d be sitting on his hands when the economy is collapsing. And a bear that’s being backed into a corner can do something dangerous to draw the attention of the population away from the failing economy.
The best cure for low oil prices are low oil prices, that’s for sure, but is Russia able to wait for these higher oil prices? It’s not just Russia’s oil sector that is depending on the oil price, but the entire economy. Saudi Arabia’s government deficit is worse, that’s true, but the country has a much bigger war chest to wait this one out, whilst Russia is already seeing the bottom of its foreign currency treasury.
Source: crudeoilpeak.info
And oh yes, the last time we saw the oil price plunging like this (and staying at a low level for a prolonged period of time), it actually was the start of the Soviet Union falling apart
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