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

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

The Middle East North Africa markets lost more than USD100-billion in 2011, according to Zawya’s market analysis tool.

Gulf markets alone lost USD52-billion, despite significant revenues generated by high crude prices during 2011, which kept the economies in great shape.

The Gulf states also benefited from economic packages unveiled by virtually all the six GCC states, but investors were more concerned about Arab Spring, geopolitical tensions, slow growth in the U.S. and a sovereign debt crisis in Europe to pay to much attention to domestic stimulus. READ MORE HERE

Tunisia’s travails over the past year paid off as it shot up in the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Democracy Index 2011.

Tunisia experienced the biggest increase of any country in its democracy score in 2011. It moved from an authoritarian to a hybrid regime. 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”.

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Excerpt from Citibank report:

In October this year, $16.9bn of projects were awarded across MENA. On a cumulative basis, just over $82bn of projects have been awarded across the region in the year to end October. This compares favourably with FY10 when almost $80bn of projects were awarded. Saudi Arabia is the main driving force accounting for a third of the 2011 total. Iraq accounts for 20%.The UAE has awarded almost $14bn in the year to end October, almost $20bn below FY10.
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• 25 Rapid Growth Markets (RGMs) to grow by an average of 6.2% this year and by 5.9% in 2012, compared with 1.6% growth for the Eurozone this year falling to 0.6% next year.

• Qatar had the highest nominal GDP (US$) per capita at PPP in 2010 among the 25 RGMs and has also been the fastest growing economy over the last decade, with an average growth of 13%.

The dynamics of the global economy have changed with a new set of fast-growing markets challenging the position of the established advanced economies. The rapid growth markets (RGMs) are expected to grow collectively by 6.2% this year, almost four times more than the anemic growth expected in the Eurozone according to Ernst & Young’s new quarterly Rapid Growth Markets Forecast (RGMF).
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What were the MENA region’s best performing stocks in the first quarter - more importantly, which were the worst that burnt investors, including one that fell 99.02% in the quarter? Read More Here