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Oman's State Audit Institution (SAI) director general Sharifa Bint Yahya Al-Mahrouqiyya said more than 30 civil servants had been found guilty of corruption and embezzlement last year. Speaking during a local television interview, she outlined details from her organisation’s annual report for 2022.

Global and regional powers have drawn up a series of plans to develop new trade corridors through Gulf countries over recent years, with the latest emerging at the G20 summit in India which will pass through the UAE, Saudi Arabia and on to Jordan and Israel. The ambitious plan could take decades to realise and will face competition from rival schemes backed by Iran, Iraq, Russia and Turkey. 

Dubai’s government plans to cut its debts by AED29bn ($7.9bn) this year, in a sign the emirate may be getting to grips with what has been a key economic vulnerability. In a statement, Dubai said it would pay off part of a AED20bn loan from the Central Bank of the UAE and Abu Dhabi government, which was provided after the 2008/09 financial crisis.

Qatar’s ambassador to Australia Saad Abdulla Al-Mahmoud Al-Shareef and Qatar Airways executives are expected to be called to testify at an enquiry by the Australian Senate over a growing scandal around the Canberra government’s alleged protection of local flag carrier Qantas against international competition.

The UAE's early September announcement that it had set up a federal gambling regulator is a further sign of how the competition between regional economies is pushing them to diversify into areas that would previously have been regarded as too sensitive or even taboo.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani has entered into his second decade as ruler in a strong position, having dealt with the regional blockade, the Covid pandemic and the Fifa World Cup. This leaves Qatar now in search of a new direction: while positioning itself as a regional mediator provides a focus for its multi-polar foreign policy, Doha has yet to identify a new national purpose on the domestic stage. 

Kuwait's Crown Prince Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was in London in late August to mark the 70th anniversary of the opening of the Kuwait Investment Office in London. The KIO was set up in February 1953, eight years before Kuwait gained independence from the United Kingdom, and is generally seen as the world's first sovereign wealth fund. It is now part of the Kuwait Investment Authority.

Gulf royal families have generally been closely associated with only a narrow range of traditional preferred sports – including camel racing, horse racing and falconry – but younger Saudi princes and princesses now occupy senior positions in bodies overseeing a far wider range of pursuits, from motorsport and esports to triathlons and diving. Their efforts to promote sports and attract international events feed into Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's economic and social diversification drive.

Saudi officials have been lobbying for international support for Riyadh's bid to host Expo 2030, in the wake of the formal bid launch in June by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, during his visit to Paris.

Saudi Aramco underlined the kingdom's deepening relationships with China when the national champion announced the acquisition of a 10% stake in Rongsheng Petrochemical Company.

Oman has introduced a unified national pension scheme, merging the assets and liabilities of 11 existing pension systems into a single Social Protection Fund. The reform is based on a unified regulatory regime for contributions, payments and retirement ages. It will reflect both need and its members' history of payment contributions.

The UAE and India agreed to do more trade in their own currencies, rather than the US dollar, in a memorandum of understanding signed mid-July during an official visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Abu Dhabi – the Indian leader's fifth trip to the country in the past eight years.

Sheikh Nasser Bin Abdulrahman Bin Nasser Al-Thani's real estate company Daruna for Real Estate Brokerage Company has been granted permission by the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) Civil and Commercial Court to seek higher damages from Lesha Bank (previously known as Qatar First Bank) in a dispute over a failed plan to build workers’ accommodation north of Doha.

The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) is to resume negotiations with Japan on a free trade agreement (FTA) after a break of 14 years, following talks between GCC secretary-general Mohammed Al-Budaiwi and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio in Jeddah.

A US Senate committee has shed light on the key personalities involved in the controversial agreement between Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour to create a new global golf entity; many of the names will be familiar to Saudi-watchers.