GCC

Before the fateful weekend of September 13-14, 2008, the hot topic on all bankers’ minds in the GCC was how to tackle inflation. Every country in the Gulf was battling …

“Asset growth for the seven leading GCC Islamic banks [in the first three quarters 2008] goes something like this. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank plus 12%. Al Rajhi Bank plus 31%. …

The long-term effects of the global financial crisis have already begun to take hold of the industry as lower demand for oil, resulting from the effects of a global financial …

It is easy to be pessimistic. Especially when the president of the United States, the supposed beacon of prosperity in the world, concedes that “this sucker could go down.” The …

The GCC is set to experience delays in initial public offerings especially during the last quarter of 2008 as governments have taken measures to stabilize market conditions around the region. …

In order to meet clients’ demands to trade shares of companies anywhere, at a faster pace, across different asset classes and for less money, stock markets around the world are …

The GCC’s plans to re-engineer family businesses and a serious push towards privatization have started what could be soon known as the “hottest IPO market in the world,” analysts say. …

While the Middle East makes baby steps towards implementing greater financial transparency, accountability and the rule of law, the region’s best-known commodity — oil — lacks transparency in the way …

Investing in a water desalination plant or a school was seenfor a long time to be a government’s job. Private companieswere usually interested to build such projects, but wererarely excited …

The growth of bond issuance in Arab markets, includingconventional and Islamic paper, has taken off in 2006-2007.Figures circulated by the financial industry say that bondissuance by GCC corporations reached $18.2 …