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Dubai was hit hard by the global economic crisis, and has never fully disclosed the scale of the damage. With debt rescheduling and a relative stabilisation in 2010, all eyes will be on the $18bn that we at least know is due to be repaid in 2011. Privatisation of assets is likely.

Private investment management company Securities Group (SG), which initially opposed a deal to sell 46% of Kuwait telecommunications group Zain to the UAE’s Etisalat, now says it wants to be part of talks.

Leave aside for a moment the football politics, so often an opaque affair, and the disappointment of much larger and more established soccer-playing nations, whose hopes of hosting a World Cup were dashed by the Zurich-based Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa), the sport’s governing body. What does the success of Qatar’s bid to host the 2022 Fifa World Cup say about the nature of polities and geopolitics as the world remakes itself after a decade defined by the West’s unresolved interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and staggers to an end with European economies and the United States struggling to recover from the credit crunch?

Libya has acquired Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia)’s stake in Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation (ABC), bringing its total holding in Bahrain’s second largest bank to almost 60%.

Recent comments by Dubai officials have sparked speculation that the emirate will privatise key assets to pay off its $110bn of debt.

The effects of the global downturn on Dubai, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have forced traders, financiers and insurers to assess GCC credit and political risk more closely. And some firms are expanding their GCC teams to do so

On 11 November, the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) issued a circular to all local banks, investment companies and money exchanges, ordering them to freeze assets and cease dealing with Iranian financial institutions that contribute to the country’s nuclear activities, according to Kuwait’s Al-Qabas newspaper and other local media.

An underwriter told GSN that, adding salt to the wounds, “there has been no real premium hike for Saudi risks whereas premiums are high for Bahrain, disproportionate to its credit rating, as it starts to come back in the market”. The underwriter added

Insurers’ perceptions of Saudi credit risk is improving. According to Euler Hermes’ Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) risk management director Mahan Bolourchi, “there has been a positive change in our perception of the risks.

The joint venture between Qatar Telecom (QTel) and Tunisia’s Princesse El-Materi Holding, which is trying to buy Orascom Telecom Holding’s 50% stake in Telecom Tunisie (Tunisiana), reflects Qatar’s skill at making deals with North African ruling elites.

United Arab Emirates investors are again trying to get projects off the ground in Algeria, with Federal National Council president Abdelaziz Abdullah Al-Ghurair meeting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in Algiers earlier this month to push their case.

Yemeni deputy finance minister Jalal Yaqoub took the spotlight during his visit to London for the Royal Institute of International Affairs’ Yemen Forum on 1 November. Giving interviews to major news outlets, including The Financial Times, Reuters and CNN,

While Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula continues to ensure Yemen’s place at the top of the international agenda, the underlying economic crisis and subsequent weakness of the state are at the core of its domestic problems

Recent financings worth a total $1.3bn for two Omani power projects and a $2.2bn package for Emirates Steel have maintained momentum in the GCC project finance market, according to participants canvassed by GSN

The fallout from the dispute between two major Saudi business families continues to concern creditors, regional banks and international monetary authorities. Conventional wisdom has it that issues surrounding the Al-Gosaibi/Maan Al-Sanea defaults will be resolved by the authorities. But the Saudi system’s slow public response to the situation was undermining confidence even before international courts got involved