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

Business and Economy Cover Image

Economy & Business

A view of Dubai Marina in Dubai on March 3, 2026.

UAE’s cash request tests US ties as Iran war strains Gulf financial muscle

Amid growing economic fallout from the regional war, Abu Dhabi’s bombshell request for a war-time financial lifeline from the United States is less about cash and more about clout — for now.

United Arab Emirates

A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker is moored at a LNG berth in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, prefecture April 8, 2026.

IEA delivers grim gas supply forecast as oil notches 15% weekly rise

A wave of new LNG supplies will be delayed for at least two years due to war-related damage to Qatari energy infrastructure, according the International Energy Agency's latest market update.

A person walks past the closed Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center on Jan. 7, 2021, in New York City.

Why did the Met Opera lose its Saudi funding deal?

The deal, announced as a nonbinding memorandum of understanding last September, would have seen the PIF inject up to $200 million into the opera institution over the next eight years.

Refueling trucks are seen at Southend Airport on April 17, 2026, in Southend, England.

Which airlines are cutting flights amid Hormuz fuel disruption?

European and Asian airlines have been most impacted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which is throttling jet fuel supplies.

Latest News

How are Iran-linked tankers still moving through Hormuz blockade?

BAY ISMOYO / AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

Gulf energy deals face Iran war stress test as global expansion meets oil shock

A picture shows the Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar's principal site for production of liquefied natural gas and gas-to-liquid, administrated by Qatar Petroleum, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital Doha, on Feb. 6, 2017.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Could UAE tap US currency swap line as Iran war strains Gulf economies?

Haruna Furuhashi /Getty Images

United Arab Emirates

EU to restore Syria cooperation pact ahead of May talks: What to know

Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP via 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

Vanessa Ghanem

In Dubai, reporting on business, energy and politics

Francisco Serrano

In Lisbon, reporting on North Africa business

FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images

UK-Saudi deal allows kingdom to tap into Britain’s $1T tech market

The kingdom spent $5.1 billion on research and development in 2022, a 32.7% from the previous year’s $3.9 billion.

KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images

New Egyptian company to raise expat funds gets $100m seed investment

The project is designed to bring in much-needed foreign currency into the North African country, which is going through its worst economic crisis in more than half a century.

A picture taken during an organised tour by Yemen's Huthi rebels on November 22, 2023 shows the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, seized by Huthi fighters two days earlier, at a port on the Red Sea in Yemen's province of Hodeida. The Bahamas-flagged, British-owned Galaxy Leader, operated by a Japanese firm but having links to an Israeli businessman, was headed from Turkey to India when it was seized and re-routed to Hodeida November 19, according to maritime security company Ambrey. The Huthis said the capture was

How Red Sea attacks could rewire Middle East trade and economic cooperation

Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

TOPSHOT - Saudi elite aerobatic flying team of the Royal Saudi Air Force Saudi Hawks performs during the aviation event 11th Athens Flying Week over Tanagra air base in Schimatari, north of Athens, on September 3, 2023. (Photo by Theophile Bloudanis / AFP) (Photo by THEOPHILE BLOUDANIS/AFP via Getty Images)

What’s behind flurry of Saudi helicopter deals with Airbus, Leonardo?

The Saudi sovereign fund’s helicopter firm inked several agreements during a helicopter expo in this week, choosing to partner with Airbus amid concerns about Boeing.

Offshore oil rig in the gulf.

South Sudan’s oil at risk due to Sudan civil war

South Sudan depends on its northern neighbor to export its oil and is facing difficulties with the exports due to the war there and the conflict in the Red Sea.

The Mukaab structure as envisioned by Saudi Public Investment Fund. - Saudi Public Investment Fund

Saudi PIF-owned company, tourism fund partner on new downtown for Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is working with the kingdom’s Tourism Development Fund to create "the world’s largest downtown" in the capital.

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)

Middle East economic powers gamble on new realities, from oil demand to Egypt’s future

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) and his wife Brigitte Macron (R) greet Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (C) during an official visit to the Elysee Palace, in Paris on February 27, 2024. Macron and the Emir of Qatar take stock of current efforts to secure a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza, as well as ways of speeding up the implementation of a Palestinian state in order to bring a lasting end to the conflict. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty

Qatar to pump nearly $11B into French start-ups, funds until 2030

The new investments will target key areas, including the aerospace, energy, semiconductor, artificial intelligence, digital, health, hospitality and cultural sectors.

Muscat

Oman jumps 39 places on 2024 Economic Freedom Index, UAE ranks 22

Oman's economic reforms are paying dividends, according to the latest Heritage Foundation index on economic freedom.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee on Feb. 08, 2024.

Yellen urges Israel to ease West Bank’s economic woes

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for Israel to reduce barriers to commerce in the West Bank and reinstate work permits for Palestinians that were revoked after Oct. 7.

Employees of Aramco oil company work in Saudi Arabia's Abqaiq oil processing plant on September 20, 2019. - Saudi Arabia said on September 17 its oil output will return to normal by the end of September, seeking to soothe rattled energy markets after attacks on two instillations that slashed its production by half. The strikes on Abqaiq - the world's largest oil processing facility - and the Khurais oil field in eastern Saudi Arabia roiled energy markets and revived fears of a conflict in the tinderbox Gulf

Saudi Aramco’s oil production pivot signals Riyadh’s embrace of fungible fiscal policy

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional energy

A trader prepares before the opening of the stock market at the stock exchange in Doha, Qatar, July 31, 2017.

Qatar’s first VC fund of $1B expected to 'fuel startup ecosystem in region'

The program has two objectives: to generate market-level commercial returns for Qataris and to develop a “vibrant VC and startup ecosystem” in line with the country's national development strategy.