The risk is that the election delay triggers a resumption of mass protests (and the use of force against those protestors by militia threatened by any change to the status quo of formal politics). Protests kicked off in October 2019 and one of the co...

Most would agree that economic stress, and specifically unemployment, breeds populism, and in extreme cases, radicalisation and insecurity. It is the EM echo of the message from Bill Clinton's 1992 election strategist James Carville, "It's the econom...

At first glance, the investment implications for the GCC region are neutral because the UAE may not be mirroring Saudi and this may signify a split in approach. For Qatar, even a partial removal of restrictions is positive but, in our view, its inves...

The nature of Iranian politics is such that the law authorises rather than commands an expansion: Supreme Leader Khamanei and the Supreme National Security Council enjoy considerable leeway on how they implement the law. Furthermore, given the critic...

Iran may be regarded as recalcitrant by its geopolitical opponents, and even portrayed as rabid by the most virulent amongst those opponents, but investors looking at oil price and the Middle East (Saudi and the GCC, Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon) should...

At least, most in the GCC region are forecast to bring down their fiscal breakevens in 2021, eg Saudi drops from US$78 (with a c11% fiscal deficit) in 2020 to US$68 (6% fiscal deficit) in 2021. Saudi and GCC currencies: Drop the pegs while FX reserve...