The UN Habitat has developed a brand new way to look at the liveability of global cities. Known as the City Prosperity Index and developed by UN-Habitat, this new model combines the five dimensions of prosperity, which includes environmental sustainability, equity and social inclusion, productivity and quality of life. CONTINUE READING

eesti / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Barclays Capital has cherry-picked Dubai corporate credit as the most promising in the region. CONTINUE READING

Beauty Eye / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Zabeel Investments was launched during the hey days of Dubai when the emirate was the darling of the financial world and the emirate was keen to cultivate its reputation as a discerning global investor. CONTINUE READING

With Gulf economies poised for growth on the back of strong macroeconomic policies, regional stock markets are also set for growth. READ MORE HERE

It has been a massive quarter for stock markets around the world. The S&P 500 - arguably the most influential indicator of global stock market health - had its biggest quarter since 1998. In the first three months of 2012, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 8.1%, the S&P rose 12% and the Nasdaq advanced 19%. READ MORE HERE

Barclays Capital picks Dubai as the best risk/reward play in the region. But while the outlook is optimistic, corporates will continue to feel the pain. READ MORE HERE

While investors were looking elsewhere, Dubai and other Gulf markets have been staging an impressive rally. What’s this: a Gulf stock market racking up double-digit growth in the first six weeks of the year? READ MORE HERE

While Dubai’s economic environment is improving rapidly, the real estate sector is likely to go through more pain and fall by a further 15-20% before bottoming out, says Rasmala.

While Dubai’s economic environment is improving rapidly, the real estate sector is likely to go through more pain and fall by a further 15-20% before bottoming out, says Dubai-based Rasmala. READ MORE HERE

Love My Tours /Foter

Close to 500 new hotels - or 496 to be exact - are being built in the Middle East Africa region, according to STR Global, the hospitality consultancy.

These hotels will feature 133,438 rooms, according to the consultancy, with Dubai leading the way with 13,349 rooms under construction. READ MORE HERE

Riyadh and Jeddah had a stellar 2010-2011, clocking the second and third highest growth rates in the world according to The Brookings Institution’s 2011 Global MetroMonitor.

Their performance was only bettered by the Chinese economic engine Shanghai, which saw its income rise nearly 10% during the 2010-11 period. READ MORE HERE

In the context of the region, the UAE and especially Abu Dhabi, was the proverbial safe haven along with Qatar.

While it was not a great year by any stretch of the imagination, the UAE looked good simply because others such as Egypt, Bahrain, Libya and Syria were imploding. READ MORE HERE

Although Dubai has seen a pick up in its economy with tourists and hotel occupancy on the up and external trade much improved, it has not yet reflected on credit growth or trickled down to other parts of the economy. READ MORE HERE

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Dubai has the seventh best skyline in the world, according to Emporis, the respected consultancy that specialises in skyscrapers across the world.

The emirate was the only Middle Eastern city in the 50 best skylines in the world, with Doha placed second in the region at 64. READ MORE HERE

Will 2012 be the year of “come together” consolidation for Islamic banks?

Size is often the justification for achieving economies of scale, used to access deals for league table prominence, used as a buffer in a challenging environment, used as defensive measure to ward off unwanted suitors, and so on.

Islamic banks are very much like Islamic (equity) funds. There are hundreds of Islamic banks and funds, but the paid-up capital and assets under management, respectively, is too small to be meaningful. Yet, both, more so Islamic banks, present a unique situation (of an industry risk) of “too small to fail”.

Read More

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said today that issuers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries face rising refinancing risks over the next three years because the amount of debt maturing in the region will increase significantly between 2012-2014.

Industry experts estimate bonds and sukuk of about $25 billion will mature in 2012, rising to about $35 billion in 2014. Standard & Poor’s believes the region is therefore entering a challenging loan and bond refinancing cycle, especially given the ongoing volatility in capital markets and fears that slowing global economic growth is already curbing corporate debt issuance and heightening refinancing risk in the region.
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By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head Of Islamic Finance, Thomson Reuters

On the long plane ride back from Malaysia to New York, I was thinking about ‘out-side-the box’ areas that would interest me to develop in Islamic finance. There were two areas that would not exit my thoughts.

Is Islamic finance capturing the imagination of the Generation Y and Z (the youth) as employees and customers? What has Islamic finance financed to build?
Read More

Major international banks from the United States and the European Union are selling off units, restructuring, recapitalising, and shrinking their operations as they comply with stricter regulatory regimes and face poor economic growth in their main markets. In this context, the Gulf, which at one point was an exotic new outpost brimming with petrodollars, no longer seem like an irresistible proposition.
READ MORE HERE

Dubai has come a long way in a short period of time. From being shunned by investors after it infamously requested a debt standstill from creditors in November 2009, the emirate has made a number of painful cuts and significant restructuring of key companies.

The emirate has matured considerably, swallowed its pride, shunned projects that did not add value and brought down debt during the period. READ MORE HERE

The UAE which is more aligned than other regional states to global economic cycles, saw its PMI fall from 57.5 in April to 51.0 in July, suggesting that that any further deterioration in global economies will be felt more in the UAE compared to other Gulf states, says Deutsche Bank. READ MORE HERE

Dubai is the ninth worst real estate market in the world, according to a survey of 50 cities. But that is an improvement. READ MORE HERE

Dubai’s bold bid to host the 2024 Olympics is just the tonic for the emirate to regain its mojo, although the emirate’s huge debt pile could come in the way of its investment plans to prepare for the Games. READ MORE HERE

HSBC’s forecast for the region’s three largest economies reveals its continued concerns for Saudi Arabia and Egypt, while it believes UAE’s status as a safe haven is revived.

HSBC expects Egypt’s GDP to rise a mere 0.2% in 2011, a far cry from the robust 5.1% growth in 2010. To be fair, a lot has changed in the country since the end of 2010. READ MORE HERE

MSCI has kept the door ajar for both Qatar and the UAE, but EFG-Hermes and Citibank analysts disagree whether either market will be elevated come December. Meanwhile, emerging market funds are already swirling around.

The MSCI left the door open for UAE and Qatar to allow them entry into the exclusive emerging markets club. The influential index provider that is used by many funds and investors as a benchmark, said that while both countries did not make the cut this time, they will extend their review till December. READ MORE HERE

The Dubai bond prospectus has revealed some new information about the emirate’s economy and confirmed others. Here is a look at some of the most interesting aspects of Dubai’s economy.

For all those who didn’t read the 123-page Dubai bond prospectus, we have digested the fact-filled proposal to reveal some of the most interesting aspects of the emirate’s economy. Some of it may come as a surprise, while other pieces of information confirm that we already know. In any case, it has led to more transparency about the emirate’s economy.

Here is the most interesting points - digested: Read More Here

Next year will be a crucial one for Dubai Inc. as a significant amount of debt matures in the year. Analysts expect the emirate to service these maturities, but they expect external support. Here’s a look at Dubai’s options.Next year will be a crucial one for Dubai Inc. as a significant amount of debt
matures in the year. Analysts expect the emirate to service these maturities,
but they expect external support. Here’s a look at Dubai’s options. READ MORE HERE

The UAE economy started to recover in 2010, though more modestly than in neighboring GCC countries. Benefiting from higher oil prices and strong demand from traditional trading partners in Asia, real GDP grew by an estimated 3.2 percent in 2010.

Nevertheless, because of the real estate overhang and continued uncertainties about the solvency of GREs, growth remained below the regional average of 5 percent. The 12-month consumer price (CPI) inflation rate was subdued at 1.7 percent in December 2010, up from -0.3 percent at end-2009.
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Dubai’s economy seems to be gaining momentum once again. But is it a temporary bump due to unrest in other parts of the Middle East or is the recovery on sounder footing? And, can Dubai be great again?

Dubai’s economy, which was once the envy of its regional rivals, has struggled since the global financial crisis. But there are many indicators that suggest the emirate’s economy has turned a corner.
Read More

Saudi Arabia is no longer in the list of the ten safest sovereign debtors in the world, meanwhile Lebanon, Iraq, Dubai and Egypt all find themselves in the list of ten riskiest sovereign debtors, according to new data. Read More

Reading McKinsey’s Urban World: Mapping The Power Of Cities convinces us that the world will belong to China by 2025 - we will just be living in it. Forget the Middle East and its oil wealth, or Latin America with its flair, charm and commodity-fuelled brilliance, or even India with its bursting economic ingenuity and labour power - China will dominate the proceedings. Read More Here

Dubai tops the list of the world’s worst housing market in the past six months, but is a turnaround imminent?

Dubai has been the world’s weakest housing market in the past six months, eclipsing the embattled and tortured real estates markets of Greece, Spain and Portugal, according to a survey from U.K.-based real estate consultancy Knight Frank.

At a time when global housing prices have risen by 2.8 per cent, Dubai’s housing prices have fallen 10.1 per cent in the past six months, and 6.1 per cent in the year. Read More On Zawya

The emirate’s economy may benefit as international visitors choose hotels in Dubai over other troubled regional tourist destinations, notes Citibank. But Egypt and Bahrain will suffer from poor growth.

The UAE may benefit from the unrest in other parts of the Middle East, according to Citibank, with Dubai set to grow 5% this year and at an even faster clip at 6% in 2012.

“Due to its relative political stability, we believe there is a possibility of a diversion of commercial, investor and tourist activity from less stable parts of the region. The external sector thus is the main driver of the recovery, with gains being posted both in export growth, and a reduction in imports,” notes Citibank. READ MORE

The GCC has around $40bn of debt coming due each year over the next five years, says Standard Chartered Bank (SCB). Plus a chart that neatly shows SCB’s forecasts returns on each country’s bonds. Read More Here

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The world is going through one disaster after another. But are these all Black Swan events or known unknowns? But are these events occuring more frequently, or are they just being better reported? What’s a risk manager to do? Read More
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