Nobody even considered looking at MENA states last year, as news of Arab Spring-related crisis, instability and the Iran conflict dominated the headlines.
But buried amid the negative headlines was the regional governments’ resolve to continue pumping funds into their respective economies. READ MORE HERE

Barclays Capital expects GCC economies to rise 5.4% this year, but Citibank worries that a sudden drop in oil prices could leave the states with a dilemma: whether to curtail spending or keep pumping funds into the economy. READ MORE HERE

Middle East markets had a phenomenal February. Find out which stocks performed outstandingly well, and which failed to get investors enthused.

February was the month when Middle East markets roared back to life.  READ MORE HERE

Which regional companies and countries stand to lose in the event that Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz? Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s takes a look. READ MORE HERE

It’s a crisis that won’t go away. While the region is no stranger to Israelis and Iranians trading insults and threats, Tel Aviv’s latest hue and cry over Iran’s nuclear ambition refuses to die down.

Recent bombing attacks on Israeli embassies in New Dehli, Tbilisi (Georgia) and Bangkok was blamed on Iran – claims denied by Tehran – have frayed nerves and the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did nothing to soothe them by attending an event that highlighted Iran’s “nuclear achievements” on Wednesday.

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Thirty-three Middle East banks are among 500 of the world’s most trusted banks, according to a new study. READ MORE HERE

Nobody can complain that Qatar does not look after its citizens. Or that its rulers are not leading the once-backwater of the region to unprecedented growth, almost defying the global economic downward trend.

As a recent IMF report noted, Qatar’s economy has grown sixfold in the past ten years alone, and the country is awash with cash, trade surpluses and foreign reserves. READ MORE HERE

In the eyes of the International Monetary Fund, the greatest risk facing Qatar is a worsening of global liquidity and financing conditions. Individual banks, especially those that rely on large wholesale funding might face liquidity pressures and either have to resort to the central bank for dollar funding or deleverage, warns the IMF, apart from in foreign reserves of the central bank and lower valuation of Qatar’s external assets portfolio. READ MORE HERE

Opec countries will rake in $900-billion this year. But these outstanding figures mask great turmoil facing group members in the next few
years.

With Brent crude comfortably over $100 a barrel, oil  exports of OPEC countries this year will amount to nearly $900 billion, a 38%
increase over 2010, according to the Centre for Global Energy Studies. READ MORE HERE

In the first part of the 2012 regional economic prospects, a look at oil-rich countries’ efforts to manage their citizens’ expectations, economic slowdown and regional and domestic political upheavals in the New Year.

The year 2011 was probably the most unexpected for the Middle East in decades with  not just the magnitude of changes unravelling in the region, but also the sheer number of those cataclysmic changes. READ MORE HERE