Hands out of the piggy bank

1

OPENING NOTE

The Donald says the war is “very close to over”

Good morning, wonderful people, and happy FRIDAY to you all. We’re going to jinx it if we say it aloud, but this morning’s issue makes us feel as if we’re (inching? crawling?) toward normalcy.

The Donald says the war is “very close to over” (stop us if you’re heard that one before) and kids in Dubai are heading back to the classroom on Monday, to the immense relief of parents across the city.

The counterpoint: The US blockade of Hormuz is “fully implemented,” the US Central Command said overnight, and chatter across the region is that we’re months away from a permanent ceasefire agreement.

Leading the stack today: Saudi Arabia’s PIF is pushing ahead with a big recalibration that will test whether international businesses came to town to invest or to simply put their hand in MbS’ piggy bank — and the war premium is fading in the regional debt markets.

^^ We have the rundown on both stories — and plenty more — below. See you folks back here on Monday. –Patrick and Salma

LIV and let die?

Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has a new five-year strategy: It wants the private-sector to co-invest with it — and it’s culling its white elephants, including, it seems, high-profile sports franchises at home and abroad. The move suggests the era of the sovereign wealth fund as the sole underwriter of Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation is over.

What happened: The fund’s board of directors — chaired by MbS — signed off on the 2026-2030 strategy this week, pivoting from a build-at-all-costs stance to one that demands private-sector co-investment, trims spending by 15%, and recalibrates which gigaprojects are getting built.

The potential game-changer is a SAR 70 bn (c. USD 18.7 bn) “private-sector support facility” that reads a lot like a co-investment fund. It’s designed to pull private investors into PIF-backed ventures, with PIF boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan framing it as an opportunity: “It offers our partners more opportunities to invest in high-quality assets and ecosystems, alongside PIF.”

The official framing is pure Big Four: The strategy “marks a natural evolution as PIF moves from a period of rapid growth and acceleration to a new phase of sustained value creation,” the fund said in a statement, with “a strengthened focus on maximizing impact, raising the efficiency of investments, and applying the highest standards of governance, transparency and institutional excellence.”

Riyadh has used the war in the Gulf as the impetus for a long-overdue recalibration. It’s what the PR types call “taking out the trash” — putting out news you’d rather have pass quietly when folks are paying attention to something else.

We’ve been tracking this for a while now. Trojena — Neom’s mountain ski resort once in line to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games — has scrapped contract after contract in recent weeks as the fund redirects resources.

Al-Rumayyan telegraphed the shift last month: “We wanted to do most of these investments by ourselves and it’s all equity. Now, we’re looking into it in a greater way: How to invite people to come and work with us.” That’s about as close as a Saudi official gets to saying the cheque book has limits.

Officials are prioritizing three types of projects: Projects that carry hard international commitments, like the 2034 FIFA World Cup infrastructure and the 100,000+ hotel rooms the tourism ecosystem demands. Projects that have direct impact on citizens, like the massive housing buildout that backs a target of 705 home ownership. And a longer-term focus on the industries of tomorrow.

Even in long-term priority sectors, the approach is getting more pragmatic. PIF’s tech investment vehicle Alat has pivoted away from semiconductor manufacturing toward data center buildout — a tacit acknowledgment that a chip fab built from scratch was always a stretch, while housing the AI infrastructure the world needs right now is not.

Gigaprojects are going to be built in phases. Al-Rumayyan has recently used language first pushed a couple of years back by Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan, who suggested that the buildout should be seen as “ modular.” The PIF governor told Reuters that The Line doesn’t need to be completed by 2030 — while Neom’s industrial city, Oxagon, is being brought to the front of the queue.

What, exactly, are PIF’s new priorities?

The PIF’s new strategy will divide its investments into three portfolios — one for strategic investments, one for managing assets, and one for global markets investments.

The “vision” portfolio cuts across six sectors, down from 13 in the old plan, including tourism, travel, and entertainment; urban development; advanced manufacturing; industrials and logistics; clean energy; water and renewables; and Neom.

The strategic portfolio bucket includes existing national champions — think: telecoms powerhouse STC, ACWA Power, and Maaden — while the financial portfolio are return-seeking global investments.

Backing away from sports?

The PIF’s sports spending spree is getting a hard look after years of over-investment. PIF signed a binding agreement yesterday that will see Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding Company buy 70% of Al Hilal football club at an enterprise value of SAR 1.4 bn (USD 370 mn). PIF Deputy Governor Yazeed Al-Humied said the move “aligns with PIF’s strategy to maximize returns and redeploy capital within the domestic economy.” PIF still holds Al Nassr, Al Ahli, and Al Ittihad.

And then there’s LIV Golf. The New York Times, Financial Times, and Wall Street Journal all reported in recent days that PIF is about to cut funding for the upstart league. Reuters later reported the opposite — that LIV’s 2026 season remains on track with PIF’s full backing. We’re reading the coffee grinds against the broader strategy — a fund that’s cutting capex by 15%, looking for private investors to commit capital, and selling football clubs is not one that’s going to keep bankrolling a golf league that exists primarily as a geopolitical vanity project.

Three questions you need to be asking

PIF’s move is unquestionably the right one at the right time. Here’s what we’re keeping an eye on next:

#1- Are international actors really willing to commit their own balance sheets to Saudi? It’s one thing to take MbS’ money on a construction or consulting contract — and something else entirely to be asked to commit your own money to an investment in the Kingdom. The SAR 70 bn co-investment fund is designed to bring in risk-sharing partners, not just fee-seeking contractors repackaged as investors.

#2- Will the domestic private sector come in off the sidelines? PIF’s domestic co-investment push assumes homegrown businesses will put their own money in alongside the fund. After the events of 2017-2019, many big Saudi family-owned businesses stepped up their investments outside the country.

#3- Will the co-investment strategy make it even harder for the Saudi private-sector to raise debt for projects not linked to Vision 2030? Giga-projects have already absorbed gobs of domestic bank liquidity. Saudi firms coming into PIF-backed ventures will need to raise debt from the same pool of bank credit that the non-gigaproject private sector depends on to sell cars, make food, and tend to their own businesses.

BACKGROUND- Under the 2021 strategy, PIF invested more than USD 199 bn in new domestic projects and grew AUM to more than USD 900 bn at the end of last year from USD 150 bn in 2015 a decade ago. White elephants aside, it created entire sectors from a standing start: Neom, the Red Sea Project, Qiddiya, Roshn, and Humain. With oil below USD 90, we see the recalibration as a clear sign that the royal treasury can’t fund both the fiscal deficit and another round of capital-hungry giga-project buildouts.

China’s all in

UAE-China ties got a big boost as Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Beijing earlier this week: We saw two dozen agreements on hydrogen, energy storage, and EVs and an agreement to set up joint investment funds and platforms to back opportunities not only in each other’s markets, but in third countries. The UAE’s many investment arms will also launch a China-focused investment platform.

The visit carries weight both on the geopolitical side and on timing: Al Nahyan is the highest-ranking Arab leader to visit China so far this year and the visit signals commitment on both sides amid a turbulent regional environment, Chinese ambassador to the UAE Zeng Jixin said in an opinions piece for The National.

“The timing of the trip was more about longer-term economics than near-term diplomacy,” Robert Mogielnicki, non-resident fellow for the Arab Gulf States Institute, tells EnterpriseAM.

China’s refusal to (openly) provide military support to Iran appears to have preserved its standing with the Gulf (or at least Abu Dhabi): “It can safely be assumed that China holds a level of influence over Iran through its economic alliance with it, which may work out in the UAE’s favor as future negotiations occur,” Amandeep Ahuja, head of research at Confluence Consultants, tells us.

SOUND SMART- China’s role in brokering the 2023 Saudi-Iran normalization suggests it could shape future talks once hostilities subside, Ahuja says.

It’s not all about the war: Closer UAE-China ties come as the US and the EU are nearing an agreement on critical supply chains that aims to reduce reliance on China and find “like-minded” partners to bolster supply chains, Ahuja points out. “For China and the UAE to grow closer is strategic not just in the context of the war, but also for the future,” she added.

US-China tensions have forced the UAE to its relationship with Beijing cautiously. Until now, the UAE has maintained strong ties with China on manufacturing, for example, while intentionally insulating its tech space under sharp pressure from Washington.

Chinese firms might also have an opening in the UAE if Western firms were to pull back in the wake of the war. “If leading multinationals, especially those in the tech sector, become wary of the region in the aftermath of the Iran conflict, then Chinese companies may be able to capture a greater share of the region’s (potentially smaller) market,” Mogielnicki wrote recently.

But Chinese firms don’t have the risk appetite that many observers seem to think they do, Mogielnicki said — they’re “pragmatic about regional engagement and keen to explore commercial arrangements … but not plunging into conflict zones or keen on massive geopolitical risks,” he explained.

“Beijing and China's business community prize stability in the region, and any serious plans for longer-term engagement are likely predicated on the calculation that some manageable form of stability will return to the Gulf,” he added.

Thank you for holding

Are regional debt markets finally seeing a thaw? Issuers may be eyeing an exit from the pricing strike as a 40-50 bps war premium that had crept into investment-grade spreads begins to unwind as the ceasefire shows signs of holding.

Borrowing costs haven’t fully retreated to pre-war levels, analysts tell EnterpriseAM, but the market has grown out of a defensive crouch into a cautious bid-only rally.

The war premium is fading

The headline news? Spreads are narrowing: “We’ve tightened significantly. We’re not back at pre-war levels yet, but we’re pretty close on high-yield and investment-grade names,” Zeina Rizk, partner and portfolio manager at Amwal Capital, tells EnterpriseAM. It’s a sharp reversal from early April, when Rizk told us that market jitters had made it nearly impossible to build order books without offering “meaningful concessions.”

Today, sentiment has flipped. “It looks like there is appetite in the market and cash is being put to work,” Rizk says.

The market hasn’t fully shaken off the risk: A 20-30 bps “geopolitical cushion” remains, “given the fragility of the situation and broader uncertainty in global rates,” Sarah Alyasiri, financial strategist at CFI Financial Global — who accurately predicted that spreads would tighten quickly in a de-escalation scenario — told us.” The key driver now is not just geopolitics, but also the rates backdrop,” she said. Meanwhile, Rizk noted that it’s too early to quantify the risk premium.

The logic is circular: Higher oil prices, driven by the conflict’s tail-end, could keep inflation sticky, forcing central banks to delay the very rate cuts that regional issuers have been banking on for 2026.

Call it a side door

“We haven't seen issuers come to market in a normal roadshow,” but sovereigns are aggressively tapping private placements, Rizk tells us. In the last 10 days alone, we’ve seen a flurry of investment-grade activity in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and Qatar that Rizk noted were “flat to the curve so they did not have to pay up,” adding that Egypt was slightly below.

Case in point: Abu Dhabi has now raised USD 4.5 bn through private debt placements, with the latest USD 2 bn placement taking place this week, with a coupon of 4.6%, according to Financial Times. The issuance was arranged by Goldman Sachs.

“Primary markets need more stability … I don’t expect a quick rebound in issuance,” Bank Nizwa’s Muhammad Ahsan says, adding that primary activity “will take some more time to revive.” Ahsan and Rizk agreed that clarity and durability are key for primary debt markets to reopen.

The waiting game

Not everyone is rushing back to the trough. While sovereigns and energy giants can move now, Saudi gigaprojects, developers and more leveraged infrastructure firms are still in wait-and-see mode, Alyasiri says. She previously identified these sectors as the “most sensitive” to pricing strikes due to their reliance on phased issuance.

The good news? They have a buffer: Many of these entities — corporates, banks and real estate developers — front-loaded their 2026 needs during a massive USD 27 bn issuance spree in 4Q 2025 and early this year, Ahsan previously told us. “[They] are not under immediate funding pressure and prefer to delay issuance rather than lock in higher costs, so the market is reopening but in a selective and gradual way,” Alyasiri said.

While they wait, Plan B remains local. As Ahsan previously noted, the local sukuk and bond markets remain a stable avenue for fundraising when international markets are scarce. Issuers also still have access to deep bank liquidity and a growing appetite for private credit from borrowers “seeking more certainty in execution,” according to Alyasiri.

The most dangerous trap right now is a lack of differentiation

Current pricing doesn’t distinguish between the strong and weak quasi-sovereign balance sheets, Alyasiri says. The market is currently operating on the assumption that “implicit government support” is a blanket guarantee — an assumption she previously warned would be tested if global liquidity stayed tight.

“We’ve already seen how quickly sentiment can flip, a single stretch of positive news last week was enough to push markets from one-sided selling into aggressive bidding, with investors scrambling to put money to work again,” Rizk told us earlier this month.

A selective repricing is looming: “While the ceasefire reduces immediate pressure, it does not fundamentally change the underlying risk dynamic, it just postpones it,” Alyasiri said. For now, the region is enjoying a post-war honeymoon, but for the debt markets, the real price of money is still being decided. “If de-escalation holds, we could see relatively fast compression as investors re-engage with high-quality EM credit,” she added.

Arrested development

The US-Israel war on Iran is cutting MENA growth off at the knees, with the IMF now projecting regional GDP to grow at just 1.1% this year, according to its Regional Economic Outlook (pdf). That’s a 2.6 percentage point downgrade from pre-war forecasts, driven by disruptions to oil flows, shipping, and trade reverberating through both energy exporters and importers.

Growth across the GCC is projected to slow dramatically to 2.0% this year, down from a pre-war forecast of 4.3%, wide gaps between countries oil and gas production and export capacity take hits from the war. Qatar faces the steepest contraction (-8.6%), with its growth outlook revised down 14.7 percentage points, while Iraq’s GDP is projected to contract 6.8% (revised down 10.4 percentage points). Bahrain and Kuwait are also seen ending 2026 with negative growth (albeit at far more moderate levels), while Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are all projected to hold onto growth of more than 3% despite the revisions.

Next year will be better: The IMF expects GCC growth to stage a comeback in 2027 to 4.8%, although that figure is contingent on the resumption of oil production and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Outside the GCC, oil-importing economies face a different but still-significant set of pressures. Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia are being squeezed by higher commodity import costs, rising sovereign borrowing costs, and potential declines in remittances from workers in the GCC. Sovereign bond yields in Egypt have climbed, while the EGP lost as much as 15% of its value against the greenback (although it has recently pared some of those losses).

Energy subsidies among oil-importers are straining public finances, creating budgetary pressures at a moment when fiscal space across the region is already considerably tighter than it was before the pandemic. Morocco, whose sovereign yields have risen to around 6% since the conflict began, faces particular exposure through its tourism and transport sectors, which are among those most vulnerable to the regional volatility.

Things are more complicated for Lebanon: After recording 4.0% growth last year in what was its first meaningful recovery in years, the country’s outlook for 2026 is now deeply uncertain. The IMF did not publish growth projections for Lebanon in the report. Lebanon is now reportedly in talks with the lender for a rapid financing package between USD 800 mn and USD 1 bn for budget support and humanitarian needs, Bloomberg reports.

Full deployment mode

Gulf capital was in full deployment mode over the past couple of days, with Abu Dhabi breaking out a fresh chequebook to cover tickets home and abroad — Aldar’s AED 5 bn revolving credit facility, EIIC took a position in popular UAE chain Joe & The Juice, IHC closed out its Pakistan bank takeover, and Abu Dhabi raised another USD 4.5 bn in the private placement market (as we note in this morning’s Debt Watch, above)

Aldar Properties locked in an AED 5 bn sustainability-linked revolving credit facility with a five-year tenor, senior unsecured, across AED, USD, and shariah-compliant tranches backed by ten local, regional, and Asian banks, per a bourse filing (pdf). The facility pushes Aldar‘s total liquidity to AED 38.2 bn.

Egypt’s Hassan Allam Holding acquired MetiPro, the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) arm of UAE’s Metito for an undisclosed sum, according to a press release (pdf). The deal creates what the two companies are calling a “scaled, integrated platform” in water and wastewater — a high-demand niche given the Gulf desalination build-out and broader MENA water stress. The move enhances Hassan Allam’s already strong position in the market as it looks to chase new mega-projects across the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the CIS.

State-owned Saudi Electricity Company has picked up a minority stake in UK utility software provider Kraken, which was valued at USD 8.7 bn late last year. The transaction paves the way for a regional JV that will migrate SEC‘s 11 mn customer accounts onto Kraken’s platform, Sky News reports. It’s a capability buy timed to the Kingdom’s renewables ramp-up as the utility looks to deepen its ability to optimize the grid as intermittent solar and wind power becomes a bigger feature of its energy mix.

EasyJet is the latest low-cost carrier to set up shop in Morocco, with the airline investingUSD 250-300 mn in its first African base in Marrakech. Morocco will be EasyJet‘s first full-fledged operating hub outside Europe, anchoring an additional six routes to Europe from this coming winter.

EasyJet’s investment in Morocco follows in the footsteps of other low-cost carriers, including Ryanair, as they take advantage of the Kingdom’s Open Skies policy. Morocco’s aviation landscape was fundamentally reshaped after the 2006 Euro-Mediterranean Aviation Agreement — the first “Open Skies” treaty between the EU and a non-European state — which reciprocally removed capacity and pricing restrictions between Morocco and the bloc.

ALSO WORTH KNOWING

Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company (IHC) sealed its acquisition of a majority stake in Pakistan’s First Women Bank, securing regulatory clearance for the state-led privatization takeover, according to a bourse disclosure (pdf). The move builds on IHC‘s initial moves last October. No transaction value disclosed.

The Central Bank of Libyaissued LYD 10 mn (c.USD 1.58 mn) of unrestricted mudaraba sukuk across 91-, 182-, and 365-day maturities, carrying coupons of 5.5-7.5%.

Abu Dhabi’s Emirates International Investment Company (EIIC) picked up a minority stake in Copenhagen-born coffee-and-juice chain Joe & The Juice at a USD 1.8 bn valuation, per a press release (pdf). General Atlantic remains majority owner — EIIC brings regional retail scale to the brand’s international rollout.

Shuaa Capital and Gate Capital are partnering on an alternative investment fund that aims to consolidate Saudi Arabia’s fragmented fuel retail sector, per their press release. The platform will anchor with an initial operator acquisition before rolling up smaller players into a 500-station nationwide network — a textbook PE consolidation play in a sector that’s short on scale.

Homegrown Ventures closed an oversubscribed USD 22.8 mn fund to back “better-for-you” MENA consumer brands, betting the post-pandemic shift toward local, purpose-driven FMCG is structural rather than a blip.

Egyptian SME fintech Invia raised USD 1.2 mn from angels and strategics to scale its voice- and text-based bookkeeping and inventory platform, founded by former Beltone SME executives, per a press release. The play: replace bulky, expensive ERP systems with lightweight tech for small and micro-businesses.

Market Snapshot

Tadawul -0.30% • ADX 0.26% • DFM 1.36% • EGX30 1.39%

Brent USD 99.33 / bbl • Gold USD 4,793 / oz • USD / SAR 3.75 • USD / EGP 51.81

Unpacking the UAE’s new crypto rulebook

The UAE’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) is moving to bring order and oversight to a fast-evolving sector: The watchdog rolled out earlier this week a new virtual assets framework that consolidates what had been a patchwork of rules into a single, consolidated framework.

The crypto reset expands the regulatory perimeter from three to eight activities, now covering dealing, custody, investment advice, portfolio management, arranging transactions, and operating trading platforms. The framework “will bring more firms within licensing requirements,” particularly those whose models were previously only indirectly captured, such as advisory or portfolio management, a CMA spokesperson told EnterpriseAM in an emailed statement.

The broader principle is one of equivalence: The CMA is moving toward a “same activity, same risk, same regulatory outcome” approach, meaning firms performing functions comparable to traditional finance will face equivalent scrutiny regardless of the technology involved.

One key shift is how tokenized assets are treated. “Not everything that uses DLT [distributed ledger technology] will automatically fall under the VA regime,” the CMA noted, stressing that firms must assess the legal nature of the instrument and not just the technology. That should drive “more disciplined classification” and closer coordination with regulators before products are launched.

There’s a one-year grace period running to 27 February 2027, but it’s not a pass. The CMA said firms “should pay close attention to the transition arrangements,” which will determine how existing business models are treated, with circulars already issued outlining the impact on applicants and license holders.

From road to rail

UAE, Jordan push ahead with mine-to-port rail project

The UAE and Jordan inked agreements to push ahead with the USD 2.3 bn Aqaba railwayproject connecting Jordan’s port of Aqaba with the Al Shidiya and Ghor es-Safi mining regions, UAE state news agency Wam reports. The partnership will see the establishment of the UAE-Jordan Railway Company to develop and operate the 360-km railway project.

The project is intended to shift bulk mineral transport off roads and onto rails, cutting transportation costs and streamlining logistics. The network is expected to transport about 13 mn tons of phosphate and 2.6 mn tons of potash annually. Financial close is expected in early 2027, and construction is estimated to take five years.

Jordan’s Investment Ministry said the railway is part of a broader USD 5.5 bn package agreed with the UAE in late 2023.

High tide for German business interest in Morocco

A handful of German companies are eyeing new investment in Morocco across logistics, pharma, automotive, software, and AI. Dachser is opening a new large-scale facility in Tangier to bolster supply chain services for a growing industrial sector in the north, while Bayer launched a new production line at its Nouaceur facility. Leoni is also expanding its staffing to meet surging demand for EV wiring from European markets, and digital firm Energie Noire is launching new software and AI hubs in Casablanca and Khouribga.

Back to the skies

Regional airlines are gradually resuming normal operations, following a stretch of inconsistency due to the conflict and intermittent closures of airspaces.

Hitting “reset”: Gulf Air, Qatar Airways, Emirates, and Oman Air are all in various stages of phased restarts and flight increases, with most carriers targeting near-full network recovery by mid-May. Flynas will operate a limited number of flights between Riyadh and Damascus from next Sunday, while Flydubai will resume flights to Beirut on Saturday, following the lead of Royal Jordanian, Qatar Airways, and Iraqi Airways.

EgyptAir resumed daily flights to several Gulf cities and launched daily services to Erbil and Baghdad last Tuesday, though destinations like Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain remain suspended pending permits.

A handful of gaps remain, including Qatar and Kuwait air spaces remaining closed to transit carriers, with several carriers continuing to suspend routes to both countries pending permits. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) also extended its advisory to avoid airspace over Iran, Israel and parts of the Gulf until 24 April.

Qatar could extend force majeure on gas beyond June, Edison says

Watch this space

Italian gas importer Edison is penciling in potential long-term disruptions to QatarEnergy’s ability to fulfill LNG exports and is looking west to the US to plug the gap. QatarEnergy — which has a long-term contract to supply Edison with 6.4 mn cbm of LNG annually — has already canceled 10 cargoes to Edison, declaring force majeure due to Iran’s attacks on its facilities. The force majeure could now extend beyond mid-June as the Qatari energy company works to restore its affected capacity.

Taking a harder line on corruption in Libya’s oil sector: The Libyan government is trying to send the right signals to international investors about corruption that has plagued its oil and gas sector for over a decade. The latest signal came from the Tripoli Court of Appeals, which sentenced a former marketing executive at the National Oil Corporation (NOC) for 10 years in prison and a fine of USD 1.8 bn over contracting irregularities during his tenure from 2010-2017.

IN CONTEXT- This comes two weeks after the Prime Minister of the Tripoli-based government Abdel Hamid Aldabaiba ordered the termination of a development agreement between the NOC-owned Arabian Gulf Oil Company and Arkenu Oil Company amid allegations of corruption.

Sign of the times

Demand for Chinese EVs is on the rise in the Middle East as rising oil prices weigh on consumers. Chinese companies like BYD and Nio Mena are signaling there’s rising interest in cheaper electric models, although the anecdotal evidence does not necessarily indicate a structural shift, experts caution.

There are also export constraints as the Strait of Hormuz continues to disrupt supply chains. We previously reported that the closure has paralyzed a corridor for Japanese and South Korean used-vehicle exports, posing a significant challenge to the UAE market where most vehicles are imported as fully built-up units.

Data points

The war in the Gulf had little-to-no effect on Saudi Arabia’s annual inflation rate, which inched up marginally to 1.8% in March, compared to 1.7% in February, according to the latest data (pdf) from the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT). Despite concerns around the US-Iran conflict, there is currently “no evidence of a rise in price pressures” feeding through to Saudi consumers, according to an Emirates NBD note seen by EnterpriseAM.

[wwtt4] USD 58 bn — that’s the updated bill for repairing energy infrastructure across the Gulf from war-related damage, according to Rystad Energy. Oil and gas facilities alone account for USD 30-50 bn, while non-hydrocarbon infrastructure adds further USD 3-8 bn.

The estimate more than doubled from USD 25 bn just three weeks ago, reflecting the expanded scope of damage prior to the recent ceasefire. Rystad now sets the midpoint for total restoration costs at USD 46 bn.

CALENDAR

April 2026

25 Apr — Sinai Liberation Day (public holiday, markets closed). Egypt

28-29 Apr — US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting.

28 Apr-1 May — Syria HiTech International ICT Exhibition. Damascus, Syria

May 2026

12 May — Qatar Economic Forum (through 14 May). Qatar

21 May — Central Bank of Egypt monetary policy decision. Egypt

25 May — Independence Day (public holiday, markets closed). Jordan

27-30 May — Eid Al Adha (public holiday, markets closed). Region-wide

28 May — Saudi Aramco ex-dividend date. Saudi Arabia

June 2026

7 June — OPEC+ ministerial meeting. Vienna/Virtual

9 June — King Abdullah II Accession Day (public holiday, markets closed). Jordan

10–14 June — Syria Buildex International Construction Exhibition. Syria

16-17 June — US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting.

July 2026

5 July — Independence Day (public holiday, markets closed). Algeria

9 July — Central Bank of Egypt monetary policy decision. Egypt

14 July — Republic Day (public holiday, markets closed). Iraq

23 July — Revolution Day (public holiday, markets closed). Egypt

25 July — Republic Day (public holiday, markets closed). Tunisia

28-29 July — US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting.

30 July — Throne Day (public holiday, markets closed). Morocco

August 2026

13 Aug — Women’s National Day. Tunisia

20 Aug — Revolution of the King and the People Day (public holiday, markets closed). Morocco

20 Aug — Central Bank of Egypt monetary policy decision. Egypt

21 Aug — Youth Day (public holiday, markets closed). Morocco

25 Aug — Prophet’s Birthday (public holiday, markets closed) — TBD. Region-wide

31 Aug-3 Sep — LEAP technology conference. Saudi Arabia

September 2026

7-9 Sep — AIM Congress. UAE

15-16 Sep — US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting.

15 Sep — IMF’s eighth review of Egypt’s USD 8 bn EFF arrangement. Egypt

16-17 Sep — Middle East Banking Innovation Summit. UAE

23 Sep — National Day (public holiday, markets closed). Saudi Arabia

24 Sep — Central Bank of Egypt monetary policy decision. Egypt

30 Sep-3 Oct — Cityscape Egypt 2026. Egypt

October 2026

3 Oct — National Day (public holiday, markets closed). Iraq

6 Oct — Armed Forces Day (public holiday, markets closed). Egypt

15 Oct — GCC Made in the Gulf Forum + Exhibition. TBD

25 Oct — Liberation Day (public holiday, markets closed). Libya

25-27 Oct — World Investment Forum 2026. Qatar

26-29 Oct — Future Investment Initiative. Saudi Arabia

27-28 Oct — US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting.

29 Oct — Central Bank of Egypt monetary policy decision. Egypt

November 2026

1 Nov — Revolution Anniversary (public holiday, markets closed). Algeria

2 Nov — Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition + Conference (ADIPEC) opens (through 5 Nov). UAE

6 Nov — Green March Anniversary (public holiday, markets closed). Morocco

16 Nov — Cityscape Global begins (through 19 Nov). Saudi Arabia

December 2026

17 Dec — Central Bank of Egypt monetary policy decision. Egypt

Sections

About

Privacy & Support

Get EnterpriseAM daily