Economy

The outlook for Israeli growth is generally good. We have raised our 2006 growth forecast to 4.5%, only slightly lower than the better-than-expected 5.2% growth seen in 2005. Also... 2006-04-19

The stock market downturn poses a downside risk to private consumption and investment, but this is outweighed by the strong upside risks implied by our higher oil price forecasts.... 2006-04-19

We continue to expect growth of 5.7% in 2006, with private consumption gaining a particular boost from tax cuts. We then expect growth to fall slightly to 4.6% in 2007 as the fiscal... 2006-04-19

Our Bahrain forecasts are based on BMI's oil price forecasts as of Q106, which assumes an OPEC basket price of US$51.3/bbl in 2006, marginally higher than in 2005 (in contrast to... 2006-04-19

Our revised 2006 oil price forecast will be factored into our UAE macroeconomic forecasts next month; in the meantime there are strong upside risks to growth, exports, the external... 2006-04-19

We have revised our 2005 growth estimate down once again to 1.5% (from 2.2%), in light of further indications of the extent of the damage inflicted on the economy by last year's political... 2006-04-19

We will revise our main forecasts over the next month. However, the strength of growth in Q4 - when it rose by 9.5% y-o-y without generating undue inflationary pressures (due to strong... 2006-04-19

We forecast real GDP growth in 2006 and 2007 to reach 6.53% and 6.43% respectively. However, these forecasts are based on our Q205 oil price forecasts, and our upwardly revised Q305... 2006-04-19

Import figures for 2005 revealed another year of stellar growth for imports of capital goods, which grew by 44% (following 46% growth in 2004). This sustained spending on capital... 2006-04-19

We forecast real growth in Yemen at 3.5% in 2006, dipping to 3.2% in 2007, though growth is likely to rise beyond the forecast period as new (but relatively small) oil fields come... 2006-04-19