This is the poignant Wall Street adage that Abdulhadi Shahadah, CIO for HSBC Saudi Arabia, used when summarising his presentation during a SunGard Dubai City Day event on 23 November. But the pessimism for the next year is palpable. Most market participants in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of Arab States have the same story – things are slow, likely will be slow next year, expect improvement in 2013.
That 2012 is expected to be another lost year for investment is certainly the narrative in Europe as well. Across the board, economists are revising growth downwards and announcing the arrival of a European-wide recession.
But the context behind this lost year is vastly different for the two regions. While European governments struggle to find a resolution to a seemingly never-ending debt crisis and raise revenues, the oil-rich countries in the Middle East are struggling with attracting liquidity to markets amid the turmoil.
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