Al Jazeera cuts 500 jobs as oil pinch widens

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera broadcaster says it is showing the door to about 500 employees as the financial pinch from the oil price slump weighs on regional Arab producers.

The reduction would affect posts worldwide but up to 60 percent of the cuts or 300 positions would be made at the network's Doha base, acting director general Mostefa Souag said on Sunday.

The first job losses could begin within the next week, AFP quoted a manager as saying.

The decision comes just two months after the network, funded by the Qatari government, said it would close Al Jazeera America in April, with the loss of around 700 jobs.

Qatar is facing its first budget deficit in over a decade this year amid slump in oil prices, which has hit the finances of Persian Gulf Arab countries hard.

On Sunday, Qatar edged down 0.1 percent as stocks in the six-nation Persian Gulf Cooperation Council fell. Dubai equities led the decline and were poised to extend the longest losing streak in more than two months after oil languished near $40 a barrel.

Stock markets across the region have collapsed amid panic among traders in response to a continued tumble of oil and global equity prices. Iran has been an exception, where stocks have roared to a two-year high, driven by continued optimism about prospects of an economic growth following the lifting of sanctions.

EA