Egyptians are looking to Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to breathe life back into the economy following his victory in presidential elections, but analysts say the former field marshal is unlikely to pursue bold structural reforms. CONTINUE READING

Ahmed Rabea / Foter

While Middle East oil exporters could see a 4.8% GDP growth this year, Bahrain would be lucky to eke out a 2%increase this year, according to the International Monetary Fund in its latest report published on April 17. READ MORE HERE

Note: The article was published before the Formula 1 race took place in Bahrain

It will be no mean feat to outpace Qatar’s amazing GDP growth, but that’s exactly what Saudi Arabia is estimated to accomplish in 2012.
The tiny gas giant has been posting double-digit growths for the past six years, but Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest economy may eclipse the country this year, if current trends continue. READ MORE HERE

arsalank2 /Foter

The year 2012 may not appear to be any better than 2011 as many businesses had hoped. A new update of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook, says global economy will rise 3.3% in 2012, a downward revision from 4% in its previous forecast.

Excluding Libya, MENA growth projections for 2012 and 2013 are set to be lower by -1.6 and -1.2 percentage points, respectively, than in the September 2011 WEO. READ MORE HERE

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   WHY DO I GET MY REPORT AFTER 48 HOURS?
   You may be thinking why you have to wait 48 hours to get the report? The truth is that we don’t create off-the-shelf reports like everybody else. We constantly update the reports and once we get an order, we will go over the entire research to ensure we have the most up-to-date information which you can be certain is current to the day you receive it.This is yards better than a report that’s sitting on the virtual shelf for six months. Plus, we are a small team looking after lots of orders - but we make up for it by being excellent, diligent and thorough with our research.

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

By Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance at Thomson Reuters

The time has arrived to take a deeper dive on better understanding of Shariah compliant companies in an Islamic (or Shariah compliant) equity indexes. To many informed and uninformed observers of Islamic equity investing, it seems to imply investing in publicly listed companies in Muslim countries.

The end results contradict the assumptions. This also rebuts the often heard allegations by many from the anti-Shariah movement that Islamic investing is about investing in companies linked to terrorism or financing terrorism. The largest companies in the S&P Global BMI Shariah include ExxonMobil, IBM, Chevron, Nestle, Microsoft, etc.
Read More

Deutsche Bank is bullish about next year, i.e. if Europe does not capitulate, the United States does not return to its poor growth and Asia does not suffer a hard landing.

In the eyes of Deutsche Bank analysts, Europe holds the key to global growth. Admittedly, this is slightly myopic thinking given that the world does not revolve around the EU. We have already seen the United States and Asia chug along even as Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy imploded one after
the other. Perhaps that’s a natural home bias of all OECD banks. READ MORE HERE

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.
Read More

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