Fear that the days of global economic recovery and rising oil prices may fast be fading has sent shivers through Gulf stock markets.
Those worries reduced the market capitalization of the Saudi Stock Exchange, or Tadawul, by around $11 billion in the first half of August to $326 billion. Elsewhere around the Gulf, the Dubai Financial Market’s main index has shed close to 5% in the last two weeks while Kuwait's index reached a seven-year low on Sunday.
Many investors fear it may 2008 all over again. That was the year the U.S. housing market went under in a sea of mortgage debt, bringing oil prices to as low as $30 a barrel. But economists say that unlike 2008, Saudi Arabia and the region’s other governments are adequately cushioned for another slump in the world oil price, if it comes.
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