The Middle East

With the introduction of Islamic financial products, regarded as allowing the sultanate to retain valuable investment dollars, the emergence of new takaful (Islamic insurance) firms raises the question of how new insurance providers can thrive in a small market.

Recent regulatory changes aimed at Oman’s banking sector are likely to cause significant shifts in the lending market in 2014, with potential impacts including increased credit access for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and perhaps a broader jump in the pace of loan growth and the competitiveness of the lending market. The changes are...

Petroleum wealth in Oman means the government has little need to sell bonds, which is the primary reason a robust market for debt securities has yet to develop. While the sultanate does sell bonds from time to time, the amounts are usually small and there are no regular schedules for any instruments other than short-term debt used by banks to...

A good transport system is a key enabler in any economy, but in the case of Bahrain, an island country, this holds particularly true. Although the nation has relatively small reserves of oil and gas, it has historically been a trading centre, and in the 1970s and 1980s it emerged as the main entrepôt for the Gulf region. As an open economy with a...

There are only three possible entry points to Bahrain: by airport, by the King Fahd Causeway (which links the island to Saudi Arabia) and by port. With the bulk of Bahrain’s imports and a large proportion of its exports entering and leaving by sea, the strength of maritime transport is thus something of a barometer for the overall economic health of...

As part of its economic diversification strategy, Vision 2030, Bahrain is planning to develop an internal public transport network and to build rail connections to both Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Bahrain’s Ministry of Transport is in the process of finalising the country’s railway master plan, which was due to be completed by the end of 2012, but no...