Elon Musk said there are still a few unresolved matters with his Twitter deal, including the number of spam users on the platform and the coming together of the debt portion of the deal.

Musk, the world’s richest person according to Forbes magazine, agreed to buy Twitter for US$44-billion.

“We’re still awaiting resolution on that matter, and that is a very significant matter,” he said, reiterating doubts over Twitter’s claims that false or spam accounts represented fewer than 5% of its monetisable daily active users.

“And then of course, there’s the question of, will the, the debt portion of the round come together? And then will the shareholders vote in favour?”

Musk, who spoke at the Qatar Economic Forum, said regarding the economy: “As to whether there is a recession in the near term. I think that is more likely than not. It’s not a certainty, but it appears more likely than not.”

He said over the next three months, Tesla expects to see a 10% reduction in salaried workforce, leading to about a 3.5% reduction in total headcount, changes he described as “not super material”.

Musk told Tesla executives in an e-mail on 2 June that he had a “super bad feeling” about the economy and that the company needed to cut staff by about 10% and “pause all hiring worldwide”.