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Egypt: reforms key regardless of CBE governor The term of the incumbent Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) governor, Hassan Abdalla, is due to expire next week and, while it is not yet clear if Mr. Abdalla will be kept on or a successor appointed, it will be key …
14th August 2025
Price pressures in the Kingdom starting to ease Saudi Arabia’s headline inflation rate slowed from 2.3% y/y in June to 2.1% y/y in July, its weakest pace since February. As we flagged in a recent Focus, we think that inflation will continue to gradually …
President Trump’s tariff salvo aimed at some of the BRICS economies has led to growing efforts within the bloc to present a united front in the face of US protectionism. But divisions between the members will ultimately limit how far political and …
12th August 2025
The Egyptian pound has strengthened so far this year against the dollar, but by most measures the currency looks competitive. This will provide a boost to GDP growth over the coming years and reduce the risks posed by the current account deficit. After …
Saudi: cuts kick in, but more tightening needed The Saudi Ministry of Finance published its Quarterly Budget Performance Report for Q2 last Friday which showed that the government is on track to run a larger deficit than projected. While spending cuts …
7th August 2025
A softer start to Q3 for the Gulf, but Egypt’s economy picking up July’s batch of whole economy PMIs were soft across the Gulf as fiscal policy becomes less supportive of non-oil sectors. Elsewhere, Egypt’s economic recovery has continued to strengthen, …
5th August 2025
Morocco’s autos production has surged over the past decade and now rivals major producers in Europe, such as Poland and Hungary and output could soon surpass Italy. This growth in the manufacturing sector should support stronger GDP growth in the coming …
4th August 2025
President Trump’s latest flurry of tariffs implies that the US effective tariff rate will rise to about 17%, from 2.3% last year. That is a little higher than we assumed and so presents modest downside risks to our forecast for global GDP growth and a …
1st August 2025
Electricity demand in Egypt broke records this week, shining the spotlight back on to the country’s energy landscape. A collapse in domestic gas output in recent years has increased Egypt’s reliance on imported gas and added to external strains. This …
31st July 2025
Oil lifts the Saudi economy Saudi Arabia’s flash estimate of Q2 GDP showed that the economy grew by 2.1% q/q, an improvement on the 1.1% expansion recorded in the first quarter, largely on the back of the unwinding of oil production cuts. Economic growth …
Rise in Saudi public debt ratio has further to run Saudi government debt has risen sharply over the past decade and, while officials are already taking steps to tighten fiscal policy, we doubt that they will do enough to prevent it climbing further. A …
24th July 2025
Oil prices have fallen back in the wake of the Israel-Iran ceasefire and, with more oil supply coming online, we think that prices will decline further. Fiscal policy in the Gulf will become less supportive as a result, weighing on activity in non-oil …
22nd July 2025
IMF lays out Egypt’s path for next stage of reforms In the wake of the delay to Egypt’s latest IMF review, the Fund this week published its latest Article IV and ‘ Selected Key Issues ’ reports on the country. While the IMF reaffirmed its praise for the …
17th July 2025
Inflation ticks up, but will start to ease before long Saudi Arabia’s headline inflation rate edged up from 2.2% y/y in May to 2.3% y/y in June and, while it is likely to rise a little further the coming months, we think there will be a return to …
15th July 2025
Saudi Arabia’s inflation rate has been remarkably soft relative to most of the emerging world in the post-pandemic era and we think it will slow further – and be weaker than most expect – over the coming years. Given the constraint of the dollar peg, this …
14th July 2025
Egypt’s IMF delay reinforces need for reform The IMF has postponed the latest review of Egypt’s $8bn deal but, with external strains still present, officials appear keen to get privatisation and education reforms on track to unlock financing. A statement …
10th July 2025
Disinflation resumes and paves the way for CBE to continue loosening cycle Egypt’s headline inflation rate slowed from 16.8% y/y in May to 14.9% y/y in June amid a broad-based easing of price pressures and supports our non-consensus view that the Central …
9th July 2025
The UAE’s non-oil sector has seen a strong run of growth recently and we think that robust activity in tourism and retail sectors as well as solid credit growth means that non-oil GDP growth will accelerate this year. Coming alongside rising oil output …
7th July 2025
Saudi current account deficit widens, FDI struggles Saudi Arabia’s current account deficit widened at the start of the year and is likely to deteriorate further as oil export receipts decline. This won’t cause any major macro problems yet, but it …
3rd July 2025
Gulf non-oil sectors end Q2 on a stronger note, but weakness ahead June’s batch of whole economy PMIs showed a strong outturn for the Gulf’s non-oil sectors despite the coinciding escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict. Tensions have since eased, but …
The Israel-Iran conflict escalated dramatically and, even more quickly, subsided over the past week. The focus now is on whether Iran pursues diplomacy or seeks to restart its nuclear efforts. To recap, this time last week, Israel and Iran were trading …
26th June 2025
The US-brokered Iran-Israel ceasefire has allayed fears of the conflict spilling over into the Gulf and concerns about a closure of the Strait of Hormuz have diminished. This has eased the risks to the Gulf’s capacity to ship oil to market, but it has …
The Israel-Iran ceasefire is likely to prove fragile. But so long as both parties show themselves unwilling to attack export-related energy infrastructure and/or disrupt shipping flows through the Strait of Hormuz, we expect bearish fundamentals in the …
24th June 2025
The Gulf economies are vulnerable if Iran decides to attack oil infrastructure in the region, or block the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for the strikes by Israel and the US. So long as that is avoided, the Gulf economies could stand to benefit via …
23rd June 2025
This Update answers five key questions about a potential “closure” of the Strait of Hormuz and the potential impacts on global energy markets from any attempt to close the waterway. As it stands, it is arguably not in Iran’s best interests to close the …
Overview – The Israel-Iran conflict creates significant uncertainty over the outlook. Our working assumption is that it eases relatively soon, in which case economic growth across the region should pick up. But the turn to fiscal tightening in the Gulf …
19th June 2025
Israel and Iran have traded strikes over the past week and while there are a large number of ways the conflict could go from here, the risk of further escalation is mounting. Not only would this cause enormous damage to Iran’s economy, but spillovers to …
Oil prices could feasibly surge to $130-150pb were hostilities between Israel and Iran to escalate in a way that resulted in major disruption to Middle Eastern energy exports and/or shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. However, so long as the conflict …
18th June 2025
This Update outlines potential outcomes of the Iran-Israel conflict and teases out the implications for the region, the global economy and commodity and financial markets. One point that emerges is that an escalation of the conflict still leaves multiple …
The Israel-Iran conflict has continued to escalate. This Update summarises how our views on the macro impact have evolved over the past few days and answers the most frequently asked client questions that we have received. What have we learnt in the past …
16th June 2025
The overnight strikes by Israel on Iran mark a major escalation in the conflict in the region and, with the oil market tighter than it was a few months ago, the risks to oil prices look more balanced than we’d previously thought (rather than skewed to the …
13th June 2025
Fresh Israel-Iran strike worries rattle oil markets Reports have surfaced that Israel is planning an imminent strike on Iran and/or its proxies in Iraq, prompting oil prices to jump over the past 24 hours. But there are reasons to think that any fallout …
12th June 2025
Saudi in the driving seat of OPEC+ aggressive shift OPEC+ this week agreed to another 411,000bpd hike to oil output for July and there’s little reason to think that the cartel’s leader, Saudi Arabia, will reverse course on oil policy anytime soon. After …
5th June 2025
The most frequent question we received from clients during recent meetings in the Gulf was whether lower oil prices would lead to a sharp slowdown in Saudi Arabia’s non-oil sector akin to that in 2014-16. We do expect fiscal consolidation to lead to …
May’s batch of PMIs across the Gulf point to a softer Q2 for non-oil sectors and the backdrop of lower oil prices will likely result in less fiscal support and weaker confidence that add to the economic headwinds. In contrast, Egypt’s improved external …
4th June 2025
Jump in inflation to prompt CBE to stick with cautious approach to rate cuts Egypt’s headline inflation rate climbed from 13.9% y/y in April to 16.5% y/y in May, the fastest pace since January, and while we expect the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to …
This report is part of our Future of Europe series. Read more analysis, explore the supporting data, and learn about our broader European coverage on the dedicated Future of Europe page. Europe is being buffeted by geopolitical and geoeconomic shifts but, …
30th May 2025
China’s turn to woo the Gulf The GCC-ASEAN-China summit underway this week contained a lot of platitudes, but it doesn’t change our view that the Gulf’s geopolitical alignment is tilting away from China and towards the US. For China, the summit was an …
29th May 2025
In this Update, we answer several key questions about how the US Court of International Trade (CIT) tariff ruling might affect the US and other economies. The outlook may now rest on the decision of the Republican-stacked Supreme Court. The upside risks …
The latest low-profile data suggest that Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy has started to lose momentum. And with the shift to a more aggressive oil output policy causing oil prices to fall, further fiscal consolidation is in the pipeline, which will weigh …
28th May 2025
CBE delivers smaller cut as disinflation (temporarily) stalls The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) cut its overnight deposit rate by a smaller-than-expected 100bp today, to 24.00%. But as inflation continues to ease over the coming months, we still think …
22nd May 2025
Israel readying strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities? Rumours that Israel could strike Iran’s nuclear facilities suggest that conflict in the region could escalate. But there are reasons to think that the fallout for the oil market, and therefore the Gulf …
Credit growth in the UAE has boomed, fuelling a sharp rise in property prices, particularly in Dubai. Prices are now at risk of a correction which, in the past, has fed into banking and debt worries in the UAE. But there are reasons to think that banks …
20th May 2025
The Gulf’s trillion dollar shopping list Headlines have been dominated this week by US President Trump’s dealmaking in the Gulf, striking nearly $1trn of potential deals for investment and trade over the coming years. There’s a big question mark about …
15th May 2025
The decision by OPEC+ to follow up May’s faster rise in oil production with a similar increase in June suggests a change in tack on oil policy towards recapturing market share. This will provide a boost to GDP growth in 2025 and 2026 via higher output in …
Inflation holds steady This response has been updated with analysis of wholesale prices and content. Saudi Arabia’s headline inflation rate was unchanged at 2.3% y/y in April, its joint fastest pace in nearly two years. We think that inflation will hover …
The recent climbdown has left the effective US tariff rate on the rest of the world at around 15% as opposed to the 27% which was threatened at the height of this year’s trade war. While this is still the highest since the 1930s, it is unlikely to cause a …
13th May 2025
Donald Trump has arrived in the Middle East and changes in the power and influence of the region’s actors mean that he will find a very different region to the one during his last visit in 2017. Iran and Russia (and, indirectly, China) are nursing blows …
Global Trade Stress Monitor …
The US and China have each suspended for 90 days all but 10% of their Liberation Day tariffs and cancelled other retaliatory tariffs. This is a substantial de-escalation. However, the US still has much higher tariffs on China than on other countries and …
12th May 2025
