Seemingly little concern on GCC pegs from investorsInvestors do not appear overly worried about currencies in the GCC. The performance of the region's equities and sovereign bonds are generally in line or better than oil-exporter peers and broade...

Four Biden versus Trump foreign policy contrasts - multilateralism, trade, Iran, climate: all would be positive shifts for emerging market investorsThere appears to be very little difference between Biden, Trump and the US Congress on the description...

BLOM Bank hosted an update call last week with investors. We address below some of the topics touched upon during this discussion. Note that unless specifically identified as such, this report does not reflect BLOM Bank’s views.The main economi...

The fiscal cuts announced by Saudi Arabia on 11 May equate to c4% of GDP and a prior fiscal deficit of 12.6% (2020 forecast from IMF). The measures include a VAT hike (from 5% to 15%), ending a cost of living allowance for public sector workers and p...

The four main fintech hubs in Africa are Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. These markets have distinguished themselves from the rest of Africa through their support for innovation (for example, via regulatory sandboxes) and the widespread estab...

Iraq and Kurdistan fall out again on federal budget transfers to the region. According to Argus Media and Kurdistan 24, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has not fulfilled its part of the deal in 2020 and the federal government instructed t...