Middle East

Imran Khan, head of Global Digital Experience at TD and president and CEO of UGO Mobile Solutions, reveals how to make life easier for consumers.

Khaled Abbas, wholesale banking head at Gulf International Bank (GIB), shares his thoughts on how the pandemic is pushing banks to find agile methods to meet corporate needs.

Emerging and developing economies will likely be hardest hit by Covid-19. Rebuilding will require addressing preexisting conditions as well as the new ones.

Israel’s Economy Ministry calculates that the normalization of ties could increase exports to the UAE to US$300 million to $500 million annually while according to Moody’s Investors Services, UAE investments in Israel could reach US$350 million a year.

Browse a full set of economic indicators, selected by Global Finance editors, including real GDP growth rate, with latest forecasts and historical data, GDP per capita, GDP composition by sector, inflation and unemployment rates, public debt statistics and more. Financial and trade information, plus best banks and safest banks rankings are also included.

Facing the combined effects of Covid-19 and an oil crisis, GCC governments and banks are looking to accelerate economic diversification and transition to sustainable finance.

GCC banks are enduring a grim year. Islamic banks may weather the storm better than their conventional rivals.

GCC-based countries are drawing down their foreign exchange reserves to protect their dollar pegs and tapping global debt markets for record amounts, along with corporates.

Outdated lending practices and a structural focus on government-related enterprises are keeping banks from backing the region’s beleaguered smaller companies.

Joseph Abraham, group CEO of Commercial Bank of Qatar, talks with Global Finance about how his bank is dealing with the current climate.

Saudi Arabia’s big VAT hike balances falling oil revenue. But what about economic recovery?

Facing an economic crisis, GCC banks are looking to tech transformation and bracing for a second wave of mergers.

Ahmed Abdelaal, group CEO of Mashreq Bank, discusses his new position and how Mashreq is handling the pandemic.

Lebanon's economy spirals as regional tensions exacerbate domestic political turmoil.

Big Saudi banks are about to get even bigger.

Executive insights from Rudy Guillemyn, head of Elite & Private Banking at First Abu Dhabi Bank.

Military and economic tensions between China and India are on the rise.

Economic reforms are hampered by worries they might undo the tacit cradle-to-grave social compact between the monarchy and Saudi citizens that provides a safety net in return for political stability. 

The MENA region is rapidly minting millionaires, but the Covid pandemic and a generational shift in ownership of wealth promise changes in how it’s invested and in what.  

Digitization is remaking Islamic finance, helping banks match the demands of younger consumers and even expand banking in war-torn Yemen.