{"id":113702,"date":"2026-03-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:00:00","slug":"what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/","title":{"rendered":"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break"},"content":{"rendered":"

We send you off into Eid vacation no clearer about when the war might end <\/strong>than when the week started, but from Abu Dhabi to Cairo, there\u2019s a sense that we\u2019re all going to need to come back from the break ready for this to grind on a while longer. Among the stories we\u2019ll be keeping an eye on over the break:<\/p>\n

<\/a> #1- Saudi construction contracts last year collapsed to less than half of 2024 levels \u2014 <\/strong>and PIF <\/strong>budget cuts are only part of the story<\/strong>, industry data suggests. The value of construction contracts issued across the kingdom in 2025 fell below USD 30 bn, less than half the prior year's total. The contraction was driven by Public Investment Fund budget cuts and a wholesale reprioritization of the gigaproject portfolio. The question now: Will the war give Riyadh further cover <\/strong>to pull back even more, prioritizing the World Cup and Expo buildouts over other projects?<\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/a> #2- Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia are among the emerging markets in the region <\/strong>that <\/strong>could be getting a financial lifeline<\/a><\/strong> from EBRD.<\/strong> The development bank is looking at emergency support measures to help shield vulnerable countries from the external shock of the ongoing regional war. <\/p>\n

All four are particularly vulnerable:<\/strong> Egypt and Jordan could be facing a drop in remittances from expats in the Gulf, while both countries and Lebanon are also expected to see disruptions in tourism-based businesses. Meanwhile, a handful of other countries \u2014 including Tunisia \u2014 are exposed to being delayed, canceled, or otherwise face hurdles as a result of higher financing and energy costs.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/a> #3- It\u2019s interest rate week around the world: <\/strong>The Fed will make its interest rate announcement today \u2014 and Thursday is equally big a day, with the ECB, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan doing the same. Central banks in China, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Sweden, and Switzerland are also meeting this week to set rates.<\/p>\n

The Fed is widely expected to keep rates unchanged<\/strong> as it takes stock of the economic fallout from the war. Policy decisions moving forward might prove tricky. The war\u2019s pressure on oil prices threatens to spike inflation, while the US labor market is also looking weak, so the case for looser vs. tighter economic policy might be much less clear than before. <\/p>\n

\n

Sign of the times<\/p>\n

European <\/strong>defense startups<\/a><\/strong> could be the Gulf\u2019s best bet for cost-effective drone <\/strong>interception<\/strong> \u2014 and the match works both ways. The UAE alone has burned through hundreds of Patriot interceptors since the war began, each costing USD 4 mn to down a USD 35k Iranian Shahed drone. With a global missile shortage<\/a> compounding the cost asymmetry, Gulf buyers are hunting for alternatives \u2014 and cash-strapped European defense startups building next-gen counter-drone systems need exactly what the Gulf offers: urgency, funding<\/a>, and a live theater to prove their tech.<\/p>\n

Regional leaders are increasingly diversifying their weapons arsenals<\/strong>, supplementing US hardware with technology from Europe, South Korea, China, Turkey, and Russia, Nicholas Heras, senior analyst and program head for the State Resilience and Fragility Program at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, tells EnterpriseAM. But top-tier US hardware will always be at the head of the region\u2019s shopping list, he adds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We send you off into Eid vacation no clearer about when the war might end than when the week started, but from Abu Dhabi to Cairo, there\u2019s a sense that we\u2019re all going to need to come back from the break ready for this to grind on a while longer. Among the stories we\u2019ll be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2638],"tags":[2613,2538,2615,2614,2563,2760,2637],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-113702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-what-were-tracking","tag-egypt","tag-enterpriseam","tag-jordan","tag-lebanon","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-tunisia","tag-what-were-tracking","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"c7c81cce-1377-401c-9f1a-63d941cf051a","order":"8","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break","related_issue":[113689],"teaser":""},"yoast_head":"\nWhat we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break - MENA+ Edition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We send you off into Eid vacation no clearer about when the war might end than when the week started, but from Abu Dhabi to Cairo, there\u2019s a sense that we\u2019re all going to need to come back from the break ready for this to grind on a while longer. Among the stories we\u2019ll be […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MENA+ Edition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-18T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"enterpriseam admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"enterpriseam admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"enterpriseam admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#\/schema\/person\/ca597032db7e4db868359c123cec256d\"},\"headline\":\"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-18T00:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/\"},\"wordCount\":549,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"Egypt\",\"EnterpriseAM\",\"Jordan\",\"Lebanon\",\"Saudi Arabia\",\"Tunisia\",\"WHAT WE\u2019RE TRACKING\"],\"articleSection\":[\"WHAT WE\u2019RE TRACKING\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/\",\"name\":\"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break - MENA+ Edition\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-18T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/\",\"name\":\"MENA+ Edition\",\"description\":\"MENA+ Edition\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#organization\",\"name\":\"MENA+ Edition\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ent.news\/internal\/42998.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ent.news\/internal\/42998.svg\",\"caption\":\"MENA+ Edition\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#\/schema\/person\/ca597032db7e4db868359c123cec256d\",\"name\":\"enterpriseam admin\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/enterpriseam.testing.projectsarea.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/author\/enterpriseam\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break - MENA+ Edition","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break","og_description":"We send you off into Eid vacation no clearer about when the war might end than when the week started, but from Abu Dhabi to Cairo, there\u2019s a sense that we\u2019re all going to need to come back from the break ready for this to grind on a while longer. Among the stories we\u2019ll be […]","og_url":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/","og_site_name":"MENA+ Edition","article_published_time":"2026-03-18T00:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"enterpriseam admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"enterpriseam admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/"},"author":{"name":"enterpriseam admin","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#\/schema\/person\/ca597032db7e4db868359c123cec256d"},"headline":"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break","datePublished":"2026-03-18T00:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/"},"wordCount":549,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","keywords":["Egypt","EnterpriseAM","Jordan","Lebanon","Saudi Arabia","Tunisia","WHAT WE\u2019RE TRACKING"],"articleSection":["WHAT WE\u2019RE TRACKING"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/","url":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/","name":"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break - MENA+ Edition","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","datePublished":"2026-03-18T00:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/2026\/03\/18\/what-were-keeping-an-eye-on-as-we-head-into-the-break\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What we\u2019re keeping an eye on as we head into the break"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#website","url":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/","name":"MENA+ Edition","description":"MENA+ Edition","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#organization","name":"MENA+ Edition","url":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/internal\/42998.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ent.news\/internal\/42998.svg","caption":"MENA+ Edition"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/#\/schema\/person\/ca597032db7e4db868359c123cec256d","name":"enterpriseam admin","sameAs":["http:\/\/enterpriseam.testing.projectsarea.com"],"url":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/author\/enterpriseam\/"}]}},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?resize=600%2C400&ssl=1","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"enterpriseam admin","author_link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/author\/enterpriseam\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2026\/3\/956.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113702\/revisions"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/113689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113702"},{"taxonomy":"brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/brand?post=113702"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/menaplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=113702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}