Ramadan and Eid al Fitr 2012, being smack in the middle of summer, generated a curious lot of anecdotal business news across the media. In Kano, home to Nigeria’s largest Muslim community, roadside traders reported demand for block ice spiking to new heights. In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, traffic in cafes doubled and turnover increased by half due to massive night-time narguileh consumption, according to Arab News. And in Turkey, makers of television soap operas were in commercial heaven due to exploding Arab appetite for their products, while Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport announced a new record in flight traffic on the last day of Ramadan. It is an absolute no-brainer that the Islamic Holy Month impacts Muslim-majority economies in many ways. A big theme is productivity. Fasting daytimes throughout a full lunar month does much to curb one’s appetite for work. The pressure on human capital management is only one aspect of
