Middle-East faring better than E.M. peers.....

The Middle-East is faring better than its emerging market peers, although the ride is still a bit bumpy. Gulf stock markets tumbled several days in a row last week and the week before that, Kuwait injected cash into the financial system, a move aimed at shoring up confidence in its banks as a deepening global financial crisis caused liquidity to tighten in Gulf states.

The MSCI Frontier Market (which include 6 Middle East countries among 19) index was down 4.27% yesterday, -8.44% MTD and -30.77% YTD.

The MSCI Arabian Market index was up 5.25% yesterday, -4.39% MTD, -32.14% YTD, the GCC Countries index was up 5.44% yesterday, -3.73% MTD, -32.98% YTD.

And the MSCI Emerging Market index is experiencing a bigger decline; it was up 5.99% yesterday, -14.38% MTD and -45.91% YTD.

The Credit Suisse/Tremont Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa index dropped -19.07% in September and -10.71% in August

Middle-East and North Africa (MENA)’s population amounts to 460m and covers:
- Turkey
- Levant (Syria, Lebanon and Jordan – as well as Palestine and Israel)
- Iraq
- Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
- Other Gulf States (Kuwait, Bahrain, Dubai, Oman, Qatar)
- Yemen
- Egypt
- Other North Africa countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya).....

Source:
Middle-East faring better than E.M. peers.....