Gulf Economic Barometer
The Gulf Economic Barometer monitors initiatives taken by Gulf states as they seek fiscal, monetary, and trade policy changes to meet the challenge of reduced state revenue from natural resources. The key trend is a major shift in the way Gulf Arab countries have been spending on public sector wages, infrastructure, and social services over the last decade. The GEB documents the policy changes as they are announced and/or implemented by country and by sector and is updated regularly as data becomes available. The information here is neither official nor exhaustive.
The Kuwaiti Parliament approves a law that increases protections for struggling businesses and provides new options before declaring bankruptcy.
Kuwait’s Cabinet approves a fiscal stimulus package that contains measures to provide liquidity for small- and medium-sized enterprises and directives for local banks to postpone select loan repayments for a 3-month period.
The Bridge: Competing Megaprojects in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Market Watch: Economic Nationalism at the Expense of GCC Integration
As a burgeoning global trend, economic nationalism is also surging in the Gulf states. What may be lost is the decade of efforts in economic integration and negotiations to make the GCC work as a common market, with complementary assets.
Market Watch: Pricing the Trump Risk in Gulf Economies
by Karen E. Young
The beginning of the Trump administration points to, at the least, a heightened period of political and economic risk, which Gulf governments, financial institutions, and businesses will have to price, assess, and manage.
Market Watch: International Trade, Investment, and Finance in the Trump Administration
by Karen E. Young
Trump’s pro-growth agenda will need partners, and the GCC states are also looking for investment partners in their diversification efforts and for placements for state-owned investment vehicles. It will be the politicization of these partnerships that will create the most risk.
Market Watch: Transactional Partnerships To Define Foreign and Economic Policy in the Gulf
by Karen E. Young
The new Trump administration will likely offer a more transactional view of U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East, and specifically toward the Gulf states.
Market Watch: The Irony of Kuwait’s Economic Reform Agenda
Market Watch: The Gulf’s Entanglement in Egypt
by Karen E. Young
Egypt gets caught between lenders as GCC countries struggle to meet their aid promises in times of fiscal austerity.
Market Watch: Smart(er) Money in the Gulf
Market Watch: The Debt Roadshow Begins
by Karen E. Young GCC states show significant interest in sovereign debt, in the form of bonds and loans.
Market Watch: Business Politics in the Gulf
A brief look at state-business relations in the Gulf Cooperation Council states.Market Watch: Drop in the Bucket: Reduced Fuel Subsidies Offer Little Deficit Relief
by Karen E. Young The GCC states have drastically reduced fuel subsidies, however have yet benefit from deficit relief.