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Economy & Business

A ship sails along Egypt's Suez Canal near Ismailia, April 16, 2025.

Maersk resumes Red Sea passage after two-year halt amid easing Houthi threat

A ceasefire reached between Israel and Hamas in October has prompted some shipping companies to consider resuming services, but security concerns persist.

Solar panels in a Sinai desert, Egypt.

Egypt lands $572M UAE-backed solar deal, expanding Gulf's clean-energy footprint

Gulf companies have been increasing their investments in North African renewable energy.

CASABLANCA, MOROCCO - AUGUST 20: In this handout image from Populous, digital renderings of the proposed Stade Hassan II stadium in Morocco, projected to be the largest football stadium in the world with 115,000 capacity are depicted on August 20, 2024 in Casablanca, Morocco. The stadium design is by Populous and Oulalou + Choi (Photo by Populous via Handout/Getty Images)

Morocco’s markets rise as World Cup spending fuels largest IPO in decades

Shares in SGTM jumped by 10% on Dec. 16 after the construction firm raised roughly $550 million from its IPO, underscoring demand in a market that has featured few new listings in recent years.

Latest News

India’s Modi eyes closer ties with Jordan, Oman during visits

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II (R) meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jordan, on Dec. 16, 2025.

Egypt secures Qatari investment boost, launches first SCZONE industrial deal

Egypt’s Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Hassan El Khatib speaking at the Egyptian-Qatari Investment Forum in Cairo, Egypt on Dec. 14, 2025 (State Information Service)

Analysis

Yemen’s oil heartland fuels new conflict as STC seeks new political power

Yemeni employees walk at the Aden oil refinery company in Yemen's port city of Aden on Sept. 29, 2015.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Turkey, US push toward $100B trade goal as Bolat heads to Washington

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Oval Office at the White House on September 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump has signaled that the U.S. might lift a ban on F-35 sales to Turkey during Erdogan's first visit to the White House since 2019. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Jack Dutton

Chief Business Correspondent

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

Sabena Siddiqui

In Karachi, reporting on South Asia, Middle East, Iran

Sebastian Castelier

In Dubai, reporting on regional business

Jennifer Gnana

Gulf Correspondent

In Dubai, reporting on Gulf energy policy and politics

ISMAILIA, EGYPT - JANUARY 10: A ship transits the Suez Canal towards the Red Sea on January 10, 2024 in Ismailia, Egypt. In the wake of Israel's war on Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Houthi rebels in Yemen pledged disruption on all ships destined for Israel through the Red Sea's Suez Canal. The disruption on world trade is evident in the number of companies using this container ship route - a 90 per cent decline compared to figures one year ago. (Photo by Sayed Hassan/Getty Images)

Red Sea attacks push global firms to seek overland shipping alternatives

An Israeli company is sending goods overland from the United Arab Emirates through Saudi Arabia and other firms are looking at different arrangements as US strikes fail to deter Houthi attacks.

KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images

Will Egypt succeed in upping its multimillion-dollar IMF bailout?

North Africa's largest economy is working to increase its $3 billion IMF program to $10 billion as it faces its worst financial downturn in decades.

Ireland's prime minister, Leo Varadkar, talks to the press as he arrives for the second and last day of a European Union summit, at the EU headquarters in Brussels, on Oct. 27, 2023.

Ireland seeking review of EU-Israel trade deal

Ireland-Israel relations have plummeted since the start of the Gaza war amid significant pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli sentiment in the country.

Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images

Saudi Arabia’s soccer spending spree slows

Saudi Arabia's splashy spending on big-name foreign players has slowed considerably as Saudi Pro League attendance sags and rumors are swirling that top stars want out of the kingdom.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) shakes hand with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan ahead of the G20 Leaders' Summit at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on September 9, 2023. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

India's government ratifies UAE investment deal as trade booms

The UAE and India have substantial and growing economic ties and Abu Dhabi is seeking to invest more in the South Asian country.

A picture taken on Nov. 10, 2019, shows an Iranian flag in Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Iran begins building 4 more nuclear power plants amid IAEA warnings

Western officials have long suspected Tehran of looking to produce nuclear weapons, though Iran denies this.

Suez Canal Authority Chairman Osama Rabie holds a press conference about the grounding of the Panama-flagged MV Ever Given cargo ship in the waterway, Suez, March 27, 2021.

Analysis

Egypt sees sharp decline in Suez Canal trade volume amid Red Sea turmoil

Data for 2024 up to Jan. 29 show 140.55 million metric tons of trade transiting the key chokehold compared with 145.25 million metric tons the same time last year.

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

A man watches stock movements on a display at the Dubai Financial Market stock exchange in the Gulf emirate on April 12, 2022. Shares in the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) rose 16 percent on April 12 in the Gulf region's biggest initial public offering since Saudi oil giant Aramco in 2019. (Photo by Giuseppe CACACE / AFP) (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images)

Middle East economic outlook dims amid turbulent start to 2024

A Starbucks store stands in Manhattan on January 30, 2024 in New York City. The global coffee chain officially introduced its extra virgin olive oil-infused drinks on Tuesday. Named Oleato, the drinks debuted in Italy in February 2023 and arrive in stores on the same day Starbucks will report fourth-quarter earnings. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Starbucks feels Gaza boycott heat, cuts sales forecast as BDS targets Chevron

The two companies are being targeted by campaigners over perceived support for sides in the Israel-Hamas war.

A shipment of 155mm artillery shells used by the Israeli army is transported on a truck along a highway between the Jerusalem and Beersheba in southern Israel on October 14, 2023. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP) (Photo by YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Gaza war brings sharp rise in Israeli defense procurements

David Rosenberg

David Rosenberg

In Tel Aviv, reporting on business and tech

GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images

Why has Saudi Arabia ordered Aramco to halt its plan to raise oil production?

The move may be simply a cost-cutting strategy, or it could be driven by a new, less optimistic outlook from the world's largest crude producer on future oil demand.

A seal on the exterior of the US Department of Treasury building, March 13, 2023.

Who are the Iranians sanctioned by US, UK for murder plots against dissidents?

One of the plots culminated in the 2019 assassination of Iranian government critic Mas’ud Vardanjani in Istanbul, according to a statement by the US Treasury Monday.