Economy

Consumer price inflation in the United Arab Emirates will remain anaemic heading into 2012, as the ongoing real estate overhang continues to weigh heavily on housing costs. We forecast... 2011-07-06

We maintain our view that Iraq's balance of payments dynamics will remain stable over the medium term (see our online service, February 14, 'Balance Of Payments On Stable Footing').... 2011-06-23

According to recently released data, the total stock of deposits in the domestic banking sector increased 16.0% in April, compared to 9.2% at the start of the year and 1.1% in the same... 2011-06-17

The release of full year 2010 balance of payments data for the United Arab Emirates reflects a marked improvement in the country's external accounts, with the economy having posted... 2011-06-09

Although measures taken by the government to create more jobs for nationals, combined with extremely generous unemployment benefits, will address the population's demands in the short... 2011-06-03

Despite the government's pessimistic projections, and the very likely increase in current spending this year, we believe Oman's fiscal position will remain strong for the foreseeable... 2011-05-31

Assuming an average Brent crude price of US$90.00/bbl in 2011, and an increase in spending of 19.2% (the equivalent of 40% of the additional spending announced by King Mohamed), we... 2011-05-31

Inflationary pressures in Kuwait remain under control (the stated target band is 5.0-6.0%), with the April inflation print of 5.3% y-o-y reinforcing our average 2011 forecast of 5.5%.... 2011-05-31

On the back of a weak fiscal position and the lack of willingness on the government's side to mitigate rising global commodity prices through subsidies, we expect inflationary pressure... 2011-05-31

On the back of our projection of rising oil prices in 2011, we have revised down Yemen's 2011 fiscal deficit forecast to 2.0% of GDP from 2.6% previously (compared to 3.8% estimated... 2011-05-31