Inflation pressures, pipelines and railways

US President Trump declared this week that he had refrained from restarting strikes on Iran at the behest of the Gulf states in order to give more time for negotiations. But reports that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has ordered that enriched uranium must stay in Iran could scupper these latest efforts to bring the war to a close. In the meantime, the latest evidence suggests that the war has so far not fuelled significant lasting inflation pressures in the Gulf economies. But these economies are stepping up to find alternative ways to export their hydrocarbons, with construction of pipelines and cross-GCC railways being accelerated.