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Saudi Arabia is said to be considering dropping its unofficial price target of $100/bbl in favour of chasing market share. Concerns around the wars involving Israel and Iran and its proxies could help to sustain oil prices, although there is a risk of a disorderly break-up of the Opec+ agreement between oil cartel Opec and other major producers including Russia.

President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ)’s visit to the White House on 23 September was the first by a sitting UAE head of state. Against a backdrop of rising violence in Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan, the main breakthroughs were promises of greater co-operation in defence and artificial intelligence.

Oman was lifted out of junk status by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on 27 September, when the credit ratings agency upgraded the country’s sovereign debt from BBB- to BB+.

The General Company for Ports of Iraq and the Ministry of Transport launched an appeal in a US court in mid-September, in the latest attempt to frustrate a $120m arbitral award owed to Cyprus-based Archirodon Construction.

The real estate developer and the sovereign wealth fund will work together to develop retail assets and build luxury properties on two small islands off the coasts of Saadiyat and Yas Islands.

The plunging value of the Egyptian pound over the past few years has made deals significantly more attractive to Gulf investors. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s regime needs the financial support as much as ever.

In decades past, Saudi Arabia used to try and extend its international influence by leveraging its status as the home of Islam’s holiest cities and by funding mosques and madrassas around the world. That strategy often drew unfavourable attention and these days it seems to pay more attention to garnering favourable coverage from social media influencers or hosting sporting events. Might artificial intelligence offer another path to promote its soft power status?

Saudi Arabia is trying to close the gap in artificial intelligence infrastructure with the UAE, by building up its network of data centres, developing more large language models and investing in local AI companies. Many thorny issues still need to be addressed though, including ideas around ‘digital sovereignty’ and the huge power requirements of the sector.

Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa has made a number of changes to the EDB’s board of directors, bringing in his son and Labour Fund chief Sheikh Isa Bin Salman while letting the king’s economic advisor Hassan Fakhro go.

China’s Premier Li Qiang has called for faster progress on free trade negotiations with the GCC during a trip to Riyadh. At the same time, the GCC has been holding trade talks with Indonesia and Turkey, Oman has been pursuing a bilateral deal with India, and the UAE has been making changes to its approach to trade pacts after mixed results from its initial deals.

Prince Fahd Bin Mansour led the Saudi delegation to the StartUp20 summit in São Paulo in September, as part of the host country’s presidency of the G20.

Bilarab Bin Haitham Al-Said, younger son of the sultan, visited the Omantel Innovation Labs in September to be briefed about its programmes and meet some of the start-ups its supports.

Ras Al-Khaimah’s Ruler Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr travelled to Xiamen, Fujian province on 6 September to deliver a speech to a trade fair and meet officials and business executives, ahead of the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the UAE and China.

The UAE succeeded in being removed from money laundering watchdog FATF’s ‘grey list’ in February, but some doubts remain over its commitment to clamping down on money laundering and terrorist financing. Recent actions against gold refineries, bankers and others suggest a renewed effort by the UAE authorities to address the ongoing challenges to its reputation as a commercial hub.

Two former managers of PetroSaudi International – set up by Prince Turki Bin Abdullah in the early 2000s – were convicted of fraud and money laundering for their part in a $1.8bn scheme to extract funds from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).