Business Extra

US President Donald Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza peace promises investment corridors and special economic zones. But without sovereign control, how can the Palestinian economy survive? In Palestine, everything from the movement of goods to collecting taxes depends on approval from the Israeli government. The result is an economy that functions but is fundamentally constrained. It grows, but only...

As TikTok faces a high-stakes restructuring to divest from its Chinese ownership, a new deal is emerging. Major US players including Oracle and Silver Lake are in the mix, along with MGX, a UAE-based company that could become one of the few overseas owners of the platform’s American operations. This is more than a business deal. It determines who will shape the minds of users on one of the most vi...

The announcement that Carrefour has shut stores in Kuwait, Bahrain and other countries made headlines across the region. But behind the immediate news lies a bigger story that international retail giants are struggling to keep Middle East consumers interested. Consumers are increasingly turning their backs on big-name internationals and favouring local brands, home-grown experiences and practices...

It’s a big week for global economies tied to the dollar with the US Federal Reserve widely expected to cut interest rates at its meeting. Interest rates are a signal of how the Fed views the health of the economy and where it thinks things are heading. The decision heavily affects the economies of Gulf countries such as the Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, whose currencies are tied to the dollar...

People across the UAE and the region have noticed web pages loading more slowly, shows taking longer to stream and Wi-Fi going in and out. This is because the undersea cables that support all those things have been damaged. In this case, we’re looking at cuts to cables that lie at the bottom of the Red Sea. Around the globe, such cables run along seabeds and are the very foundation of internet con...

Despite billions being spent over the past few years on artificial intelligence investments, a recent MIT Media Lab report found 95 per cent of organisations have produced zero returns so far. But is that really the case for companies who are offering AI solutions? How are those in the Middle East performing? In this episode of the Business Extra podcast, host Salim Essaid is joined by Mohammad Ab...

Syria’s central bank has announced plans for a currency overhaul that will involve eliminating two zeros from its pound and printing new banknotes. The Syrian pound has lost more than 99 per cent of its value since the start of the civil war in 2011, and economists are warning that a new currency means little without real policy reform. In this week’s episode of Business Extra, host Salim Essaid l...

Nuclear energy can be a flashpoint for tension in the Middle East. Now, though, it's taking new light. A handful of Gulf countries, including the UAE, have signed new agreements with the US in the past few months – each nation with its own advantages and goals in the sector. These agreements focus heavily on civilian nuclear energy. But they are also part of a broader goal to futureproof Gulf econ...

New US tariffs are coming into effect this week. US President Donald Trump's newest deadline of August 1 is his latest attempt to secure trade agreements with vital global economies – and bring in more revenue for the US. Take Monday’s deal between the US and the EU. They avoided a trade war by agreeing that the EU would pay 15 per cent tariffs on most goods – half the rate that Mr Trump had threa...

Crypto has reached a critical moment in its history. The US released a slew of game-changing bills for cryptocurrency last week, signalling a long-anticipated seal of approval of crypto from the world’s largest economy. Those bills are the Clarity Act, something called the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, and – the Genius Act, which is what we are focusing on today. It is all expected to have maj...

A whole new property market is to open up to international buyers and it is from the Middle East’s largest economy. Starting in January 2026, Saudi Arabia will allow foreign investors to buy property in the kingdom. It has left global investors eager to find out how they can tap into Saudi Arabia’s fast growing real estate market, which is expected to reach more than $94 billion by 2028. But how e...

The absence of income tax has helped to attract people from around the world to move to the Gulf. But one country is set to change direction. Oman recently announced it will be the first country in the region to introduce personal income tax. While some countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have other types of taxes, such as VAT, on most goods and services, Oman is making history with a l...

For decades, most Emiratis have worked in government roles. But now, thousands are joining private companies as part of a nationwide plan to balance the workforce. Early iterations of Emiratisation began in the 1990s, with programmes formalised in the early 2000s. About three years ago, the UAE gradually implemented quotas for hiring Emiratis and gave private-sector companies deadlines to meet the...

Gulf leaders have been on alert for triggers on several fronts: for one, potential damage to nuclear sites, such as the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, just across the pond that is the Arabian Gulf. The Gulf has also kept close watch on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway in the Gulf where about a fifth of the world's oil flows through to power the globe, and which Iran had threatened t...

In the days since Israel started its offensive against Iran, oil prices have shot up and global markets dipped. Israel has struck nuclear sites and oil fields, and the aggression has left global markets wary of what’s to come. Markets are holding out for the possibility of major supply chain disruptions that could have global impact. To understand what this war means for the global economy, Busine...

“New” is the theme in the Middle East’s growing aviation sphere: new cities, new aircraft and new markets. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) says carriers in the region are expected to post the highest net profit margin in the world this year, at 8.7 per cent. These are strong numbers from the Middle East. But they are coming at a volatile time. Host Salim Essaid hears from The Na...

In the UAE, where development is the name of the game, real estate is a big deal. There's a lot of growth in the UAE, and that means questions about property. The real estate sector in Dubai has been booming since Covid, while there is also rapid development in Abu Dhabi. A report from the credit rating agency Fitch says Dubai property prices are expected to fall by up to 15 per cent in the second...

Last week, some of the biggest names in tech announced a partnership with Abu Dhabi’s leading AI entity, G42 – a project called Stargate UAE. It’s part of a massive new AI campus set to come online in 2026 – a Gulf iteration of OpenAI’s US-based project of the same name, which was launched earlier this year. Also happening at the same time will be a partnership between Nvidia and the UAE’s AI inve...

The UAE is in a race with itself to raise its manufacturing game.  From machine parts to pasta, there is one goal: Make it in the Emirates. That also happens to be the name of an event taking place in Abu Dhabi this week, showing what UAE manufacturing has to offer. It’s part of a larger push by the country to be less reliant on international trade, aiming to expand and diversify the UAE economy a...

US President Donald Trump’s historic trip to the Gulf has come to an end – but the business deals announced during it will have a lasting impact. Mr Trump’s tour was a whirlwind of mega-announcements, including $200 billion in commercial deals with the UAE, a $600 billion package with Saudi Arabia and a record aircraft order from Qatar Airways. In this episode of Business Extra, host Sarah Forster...

The Jordanian government owed 44.8 billion dinars in public debt as of February this year. That’s more than $63 billion. It’s not $36 trillion dollars like the figure blinking on the US debt clock. But for a country like Jordan, where debt makes up more than 92 per cent of GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund, that number hits differently. Jordan is now at a crossroads. With US financ...

It's been a time of tumult on Wall Street – at the hands of the White House. US President Donald Trump made his plans for tariffs known on the campaign trail, but their scale has taken the world by surprise. The sweeping tariffs sent global markets into chaos. Then, with the announcement of a 90-day pause, things calmed down. But that hasn’t done much for perhaps the greatest fear among investors...

For more than a decade, Syria has been under international sanctions aimed at pressuring Bashar Al Assad’s regime. But there is a longer history of sanctions on the country and the broader Middle East. Sanctions can be used as a nudge – or shove – from government to government, usually during times of war. But their impact continues into periods of relative peace, trickling from the highest ranks...

Donald Trump has been vocal about his planned tariff war since setting foot on the campaign trail – in both his first and second times in office. Mr Trump began his first stint in the White House with a trade war against China. Some of those tariffs were preserved by Joe Biden’s administration when he began his term in 2020. But throughout his campaign, Mr Trump made clear he’d come back with tari...

The start-up economy is booming in the Middle East, but despite progress, women remain underrepresented, as founders and as recipients of funding. While women-led start-ups make up 7 per cent of the region’s total, they receive about 1 per cent of available funding, Wamda statistics show. In this episode of Business Extra, host Salim Essaid speaks with three female founders in the UAE – Yasmin Ros...