Economy

We expect Iraq to record healthy current account surpluses over the coming years. That said, almost all of Iraq's export revenues come from sales of crude oil and so in the event... 2008-10-29

Sales of hydrocarbons make up around 70% of central government revenues, but falling oil prices do not pose any immediate threat to Qatar's healthy fiscal outlook. We expect Doha... 2008-10-24

The UAE will see a sharp contraction in its current account surplus in 2009. We are forecasting a full year figure of US$17.0bn, or 6.6% of GDP, down from the 22.2% that we are predicting... 2008-10-24

In the absence of recent data, we believe that inflationary pressure remains elevated in Yemen and have pencilled in a year-end rate of 16.0% y-o-y for CPI. This should ease significantly... 2008-10-24

We have revised down our 2009 growth forecast for the UAE to 4.6% in light of the worsening global economic situation. Despite its huge accumulated wealth, the UAE is far from immune... 2008-10-23

Inflation increased to 29.4% y-o-y in September, up from 27.6% the previous month. While we expect it fall to 22.0% y-o-y by the end of the Iranian year (in March 2009), President... 2008-10-23

Recently released figures from the Islamic Finance Information Service (IFIS) concerning global sukuk issuance clearly illustrate our long-held view that the market is not favourable... 2008-10-22

BMI View: There is no doubt that a tide of pessimism has overtaken the Gulf region over recent weeks, and with downward growth revisions, cancelled IPOs and disappointing corporate... 2008-10-21

We have revised downwards Iraq's sovereign risk rating for 2009 from D to E-. Our gloomy outlook is driven by a dramatic fall in its Ability to Pay score (from 31/55 to 20/55). Recent... 2008-10-16

The long-term outlook for the Qatari banking sector is broadly positive and we expect asset growth to hold up, albeit at a moderated rate in relation to the stellar expansion of the... 2008-10-15