2006

Beirut Gate, the $600 million Abu Dhabi-financed real estate development in Solidere, is going ahead as planned. How quickly and successfully it does so will be a confidence test for …

When attendees crowd the new Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Damascus for the opening of the Syrian Banking Conference on November 3-5, talk will undoubtedly turn to the complications that …

Those who predicted that the towering, luxury residential developments in the BCD and its immediate environs would become a sad testament to unbridled optimism and crushed potential had better think …

We have spoken at great length, and on several occasions, in these pages about the Gulf capital markets and equities in particular. Twice, in the last quarter of 2005, we …

Toufic Dalal, owner of Dalal Steel Industries, is at his desk at 06:00 everyday. Today, his desk is a four-room office in a building he owns on Makhoul Street off …

In early July 2006, Liban Lait, Lebanon’s largest dairy farm, was witnessing an unprecedented growth spurt. “At the beginning of July, the market was booming; we had a peak in …

The recent Lebanon war could be interpreted at many levels, but perhaps its most significant impact was how it came to damage Lebanon’s capitalist culture—a culture of openness, relatively unhindered …

A Clinton strategist famously coined the phrase, “it’s the economy, stupid.” His boss was commander-in-chief of the strongest army on the planet. No economy within a truly democratic system can …

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) warned that, as a consequence of the recent conflict, Lebanon’s 2006 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could shrink by some 10%, taking the national debt of …

Perhaps the most crucial elements of any capital market, especially an emerging market, are confidence and liquidity. During the devastating days of the conflict between Hizbullah and Israel, both took …