Iraq elections have seen voter turnout fall since 2005. Preliminary results suggests that no single bloc has a majority, as expected. Therefore, it should have the upper hand in negotiations. Al-Sadr is close to Iran, as is any political leader with ...

We initiated a Buy on the IRAQ 6.752 03/09/2023 eurobond on 23 July 2020 at a mid-price of US$96.33 (8.34% yield, 812bps z-spread) based on its combination of high yield and low duration, making it an attractive defensive play in light of Iraq's robu...

A low median age, referred to as a demographic youth bulge, can be a very positive tailwind for economic and, particularly, consumption growth in emerging markets. But this is only the case if there is sufficient job creation: an unemployed youth bul...

Should governments in the Middle East that are allied, or at least aligned, with the US be more concerned for their security following the final US withdrawal from Afghanistan? Or, at least, no more than they were before recent images from Kabul airp...

OPEC has pulled an eleventh-hour rabbit out of the hat many times before, and it will need to do so again to bring the UAE back into the fold this time. The UAE is the fourth-largest producer in OPEC+ and wants its quota to reflect the over 20% capac...

Militaries generally took a bigger share of budgets in 2020 in aggregate globally, as well as in most emerging markets, and that was despite the Covid-19 emergency response. Middle East: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi. Given the...