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Pezeshkian presented his first draft budget to the Majlis-e Shura-ye Eslami on 22 October, setting out plans to reduce taxes for poorer Iranians, boost oil production, reform energy subsidies, and bolster the country’s military. 

The Brics summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin allowed the first meeting between Iran and the UAE since they became full members of the emerging economies’ bloc in January. The conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon were high up the agenda as the Russian city of Kazan hosted an event that allowed emerging economies to show off their potential as an eventual alternative to western economic dominance – and the dollar economy – but above all it allowed Putin to bask in the glow of peer group recognition, ahead of the US election, while his war in Ukraine rages on.

Bahraini sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat is considering selling luxury sportscar business McLaren Automotive to Abu Dhabi’s CYVN Holdings – adding to the latter’s existing portfolio of stakes in Chinese and British EV companies.

In a sector reorganisation, Sharjah ruler Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Bin Saqr Al-Qasimi has set up an Energy Council, renamed the Petroleum Council as the Petroleum Department and appointed Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) chief executive Hatem Mohammed Al-Mosa as director general of both bodies.

The 1,000-metre Jeddah Tower project ground to a halt in 2018, after about a third of its 157 floors had been completed, amid a crisis at construction giant Binladin Group and shortly after Kingdom Holding’s Prince Alwaleed found himself caught up in the crown prince’s anti-graft campaign. Work is now restarting, with Binladin Group once again signed up for the task.

Abu Dhabi government-owned investment group ADQ has handed the master developer contract for the Ras El-Hekma megaproject on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast to Modon Holding – a company which ADQ already owns a substantial stake in.

The Saudi government-owned Istedamah Holding was set up in late 2017, seven weeks after hundreds of senior  figures were arrested in an anti-corruption sweep in early November and held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel Riyadh. Istedamah is now emerging as an important institution in Riyadh’s reshaping of the kingdom’s business environment. The full extent of its portfolio is still unclear but more details are emerging.

The Ministry of Investment says the Saudi government is now hitting the foreign direct investment goals set out in its National Investment Strategy, after revising its methodology for calculating FDI inflows for the second time in less than a year.

King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa has emphasised the need to continue pursuing the government’s Economic Vision 2030. At the recent inauguration of the third session of the sixth legislative term of the Shura Council and the Council of Representatives he told the assembled parliamentarians that work should also be “accelerated on its next version for the year 2050.” On the regional front, Bahrain has been continuing to try and improve relations with Tehran. King Hamad hosting Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi for talks at Al-Sakhir Palace on 21 October.

Saudi government-owned broadcaster MBC has found itself in hot water, after running a report which described recently-killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a ‘new face of terrorism’. Media regulators in Saudi Arabia are looking into the matter, while the authorities in Baghdad have shut down its local office and started the process of revoking its licence.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party secured a solid win in the KRI’s long-waited 20 October vote, winning 39 seats against the 23 secured by its main challenger, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. In a toxic atmosphere the two rivals  now have to hammer out a deal to form the next Kurdistan Regional Government – a process that took ten months last time around.

Oman’s state-owned energy group OQ is preparing to list a minority stake in its Base Industries subsidiary on the Muscat Stock Exchange, following the bourse debut of its OQ Exploration and Production division in late October.

Gulf rulers welcomed a familiar, if neither always firm nor predictable friend’s victory over the widely mistrusted Biden administration to regain the White House. Plenty of questions remain about what a second Trump term might mean for the Gulf economies and for regional security, and the ‘transactional’ populist’s impulsive approach to policy means it is unlikely to be a smooth ride even for his allies. Trump II could further accelerate trends apparent in recent years, of Gulf states pivoting towards Asia and making ever more assertive expressions of national interest, if still under an American defensive umbrella.

The EU has offered support to the latest Saudi effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, promising to hold a summit in Brussels later this month for the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution. At the first EU-GCC summit, held in mid-October, the Europeans also agreed to revive discussions on a trade deal, some 16 years after talks were suspended due to differences over human rights.

The Kuwaiti and Malaysian governments have agreed to start formal negotiations on a deal to sell the Kuwait Air Force’s fleet of 32 F/A-18 C/D Hornet jets, which are being replaced by more modern aircraft. Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad told Malaysian defence minister Khaled Nordin he saw “no obstacles” to a deal.