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As oil prices reach recent highs, a number of countries in the Middle East have unveiled fiscal measures designed to balance their budgets after two years of Covid-19 pandemic-related spending. Bahrain is following this trend: in October 2021 it released a plan designed to balance the budget by 2024. In addition to doubling the value-added tax (VAT) rate to 10%, the plan...

Originally scheduled to take place in 2020 and postponed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2022 General Housing and Population Census is the fifth nationwide census in the history of Saudi Arabia. Mandated in 2017, the census is a key step towards achieving the objectives of Vision 2030, particularly with regards to the acceleration of socio-economic development...

From remote work to widespread job losses, the Covid-19 pandemic dramatically changed the way people work. These interruptions are likely to have a significant impact on the labour market well into the future. In a briefing from June 2021, the UN said that many emerging markets in particular were experiencing a “full-blown unemployment crisis” that was exacerbating existing...

While Saudi Arabia has long been a key market for many multinational corporations, these have often headquartered themselves elsewhere in the region, with only a secondary presence in the Kingdom. This is changing, however, as the market opens up more to international businesses and a new policy begins to take effect. Known as Programme HQ, this new policy aims to attract...

With increasing oil and gas prices and an expanding non-oil sector, Saudi Arabia has been logging record trade surpluses in recent years, while securing government revenue for future investment. Saudi Arabia is expected to be among the fastest-growing economies in the G20 in 2022 – and the Kingdom was on track to fulfil that forecast by the middle of the year. Indeed, in the...