After the tragic events of 9/11 the Middle East was temporarily destabilized and Citibank withdrew more than $40 billion from Bahrain. In due course the money was put back but the bank quietly moved its headquarters to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and its operations grew substantially in the oil and real estate boom of the 2000s.
That boom came to a sudden stop in late 2008, just after the $21 million party to open the Atlantis Hotel on Palm Island. But some local analysts are beginning to ask whether the violence and protests in Bahrain over the past week are going to mark another decisive phase in the decline of Bahrain as a financial centre and the rise of Dubai, albeit the 3.7 per cent fall at the Dubai Financial Market on Sunday showed the impact of Arab unrest on regional trade is more of a consideration at the moment.
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