国际英语新闻：Gulf oil exporters upbeat on stable crude prices

KUWAIT CITY, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Gulf oil exporters were upbeat in entering the new year as the crude prices in the international trading have been stable in the past year and taken an upward trend to pass 90 U.S. dollars per barrel from yearend.

The stable oil prices made the economic outlook for the six countries that sit atop 45 percent of the global crude reserves optimistic and support them to blueprint plans in lavish public spending and overseas investment to digest huge oil revenues.

OPTIMISTIC ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The six states together ship around 16 million barrels of crude per day. Oil and gas are the backbones of these desert nations' economy.

The average oil prices were between 70 to 80 dollars per barrel in 2010 compared to 59 dollars a barrel for 2009, after a big dive during the global financial crisis.

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheik Ahmed Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah said in December oil prices will not likely to cross the 100 dollars a barrel mark in 2011 and the current prices are acceptable for both oil producing and consuming countries.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in October the economic outlook for GCC countries has improved guaranteed by stable oil prices and recovering world economy.

GCC economies will likely to expend 4.2 percent in 2010, following a 2.3-percent growth of GDP in 2009, the IMF said.

That analysis was echoed by a report from the Diplomatic Center for Strategic Studies in Kuwait which said oil revenues in GCC countries rose by 15.6 percent or the equivalent of 63 billion dollars over the past year to reach 465 billion dollars.

The 27-percent increase is expected to bring a 9-percent economic growth in these countries at the current prices in 2011.

Among the six countries, the world's top liquified natural gas (LNG) exporter Qatar would record the highest growth rate, with its real GDP projected to rise by around 10.6 percent in 2011 driven by the expansion in the gas sector.

Growth were forecast at around 3.9 percent in Saudi Arabia, at nearly 3.3 percent in Kuwait and the UAE, at 6.1 percent in Oman and around 4.9 percent in Bahrain.