Economy & Business - AL-MONITOR: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Business and Economy Cover Image

Economy & Business

People walk past a cryptocurrency exchange office with a screen featuring US President Donald Trump holding cryptocurrency coins in Hong Kong on March 12, 2025.

Trump earns $810M from UAE-backed crypto firm: What to know

According to the disclosure, Trump earned $810 million from crypto token sales and sales of interests in UAE-backed World Liberty Financial.

United Arab Emirates

Omar Albaw / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images

Kuwait's Zain eyes $1.5B mobile network in postwar Syria: What to know

The Kuwaiti company is planning to invest more than $1.5 billion in Syria after securing a license to operate there, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP via Getty Images

Here's what to know about Iraq's corruption as Zaidi launches crackdown

Watchdogs and financial institutions regard Iraq as a significantly corrupt country as the new prime minister works to recover public funds.

Latest News

Traffic plummets through Strait of Hormuz after Iran, US trade fire

AFP via Getty Images

Interview

Saudi labor localization will take ‘generation or two': Armada CEO

A student attends a training seminar at the Tourism Ministry Training center in the city of Riyadh on August 30, 2022.

Olivier Badard

CEO of Armada Holding

Analysis

Why the Hormuz oil shock never became an energy catastrophe

A tourist boat passes near crude oil tankers, bulk carriers, and other vessels anchored off Port Sultan Qaboos in Muscat, Oman, June 19, 2026.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Explainer

Gulf states push incentives for investors, expats after war dents image

FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images

United Arab Emirates

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

Vanessa Ghanem

In Dubai, reporting on business, energy and politics

Francisco Serrano

In Lisbon, reporting on North Africa business

COP27 UAE President

The Gulf Briefing: As COP27 kicks off in Egypt, ‘collective action or collective suicide’

In our weekly Gulf Briefing newsletter, we round up key stories to keep you ahead of the game. Check out this week’s edition on COP27.

JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

More gas discovered off Israeli coast

The discovery is below the area that was previously disputed between Israel and Lebanon.

Tunisian cow

Tunisia's cows disappear into Algeria

Tunisia's livestock is being increasingly smuggled to Algeria as a severe shortage of milk is hitting Tunisian markets.

A woman walks out of a currency exchange shop displaying a giant US dollar banknote in the Zamalek district of Egypt's capital Cairo on August 24, 2022. - Depleted foreign currency reserves are casting a shadow on Egyptian streets, with the government moving to dim lights to free up energy for export. More natural gas exports means more hard currency, a dire need as experts say a new loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and an adjacent currency liberalisation is inevitable. (Photo by Khaled DESOU

Egypt to stick to flexible foreign exchange rate regime amid economic turmoil

Marc Español

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

IMF tells Turkey to raise interest rates

Inflation is rampant in Turkey, but Turkey's Central Bank stubbornly continues to cut interest rates under pressure from President Erdogan.

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Turkish inflation hits 85.5% as doubts linger over official data

Alternative surveys put Turkey’s inflation rate well above the official figure, nourishing suspicions that the statistics agency is tweaking market realities under government pressure.

Delegations attend the 46th ordinary session of the Council of Arab Central Banks and Monetary Authorities Governors, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 18, 2022.

Gulf banks raise interest rates in response to the Fed, Kuwait stays put

Saudi Arabia could be in store for a liquidity crunch, according to a leading credit rating agency. Kuwait has a history of not following the trend on interest rates.

Egypt trade

Egypt reports increased trade with Arab states

Saudi Arabia is Egypt's top trading partner in the region.

Tawazon founder Suna Zaobi from Palestine networks with others attending the 4th edition of the International Conference on Entrepreneurship in Palestine (ICEP), held in Dubai for the first time, on November 1, 2022.

‘Stars aligned’ for Palestinian startups, Gulf investors say

Entrepreneurs from the West Bank and Gaza recently visited Dubai to attend a conference on funding for new businesses.

A woman walks over cracked earth at al-Massira dam in Ouled Essi Masseoud village, some 140 kilometres (85 miles) south from Morocco's economic capital Casablanca, on August 8, 2022 amidst the country's worst drought in at least four decades. - Residents of Morocco's Ouled Essi Masseoud village are suffering from a series of successive droughts, prompting them to rely solely on sporadic supplies in public fountains and from private wells. The situation is critical, given the village's position in the agricu

Water stress to remain major driver of social instability, barrier to economic growth in Maghreb

Francisco Serrano

Francisco Serrano

In Lisbon, reporting on North Africa business

Saudi Miniser of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud addresses delegates during the 2021 climate summit, Glasgow, Ireland, Nov. 10, 2021.

Saudi Arabia offers green bonds in push toward net zero

While the move signals that the kingdom understands the global trends toward "green," its impact on climate action will require further steps.

The Egyptian pound and US dollar banknotes are seen in this photo taken on Aug. 25, 2022.

Can floating Egyptian pound kill foreign currency black market?

Egypt's latest flotation of its currency may rein in its thriving foreign currency black market, but economists cannot see an end to this market in the near future.