The Middle East Economy

Thanks in part to its role as a commercial centre, Dubai has long been a diverse place, host to dozens of languages and peoples from around the world. In recent years it has become even more so. Between 2006 and 2011, non-Emirati natural population growth – total natural births minus deaths – outpaced that of Emiratis, according to data from the...

The last decades of rapid economic growth in Dubai are a well-known phenomenon. Equally well known are the economic shocks the emirate witnessed in wake of the global financial crisis. The mood in Dubai, however, is swinging back towards a more guarded optimism as it regains its status among regional and international economies. Dubai is still...

The global financial crisis hit Dubai hard. Local government-backed investment companies were overextended and had taken on a high level of risk during the years of readily available capital from international banks, many of which had assumed the government would guarantee every deal. Exact figures vary, but estimates suggest that Dubai firms...

Over the past four decades Dubai has become one of the most important economic centres in the Middle East and a key destination for investors, tourists and corporations from around the world. The emirate boasts a diversified economy, an open business environment, and a multinational population and workforce, all of which have contributed to its...

Although relatively isolated in Oman’s southern region of Dhofar, the city of Salalah has become a major hub for trans-shipment. Built in the late 1990s, the Port of Salalah is Oman’s largest seaport and among the 30 biggest container ports in the world.

Located some 230 km north-west of Muscat, Sohar is the sultanate’s third largest city and an emerging economic centre in its own right. While the Port of Sohar, a deepwater industrial seaport in operation since 2004, is a key component of Sohar’s expanding economy, the nearby Freezone Sohar is becoming especially vital as well. The free zone is...