Economic readings of GDP growth continue to fluctuate wherever you look across the globe. But while earlier in the year, observers wrung their hands and revised forecasts downwards for the Middle East, the story seems to be changing.
According to economic consultancy Focus Economics, for instance, across the Middle East and North Africa expectations are rising. Though it remains vulnerable to geopolitical risk and oil market volatility, the region’s 2016 growth projections have stabilised at 2.3% – and 2017 growth is now projected to rise to 3%.
For Gulf Cooperation Council countries in particular, there are successes to be celebrated within that admittedly delicately balanced position. Some of those successes are commercial; others are the work of public policy, as we explore in this issue of Middle East Treasurer.
The willingness of corporates to adopt digital solutions and also to grapple with the complex landscape of traditional providers and fi ntechs is increasingly evident in the Middle East. And the skills of corporate treasurers to deploy and promote viable and worthwhile solutions are coming to the foreground more and more.
In our profife on page 4, Rahul Daswani, group treasury manager for structured finance at Microsoft in Dubai, explains how his team can help build the case for sales from companies in emerging markets. He looks at pricing dynamics and credit risk to assess the viability of transactions and factors new measures, such as whether the deal, once achieved, can be readily repeated in another territory.
Returning to our economic perspective, one country exciting forecasters is Iran, which is expected to outperform other countries in the region on growth, as multinationals cluster around the opportunities that the lifting of sanctions has brought. Our feature on how treasurers will have to take a pragmatic approach within an environment full of risk and low on transparency, begins on page 8.
Elsewhere, we look at liquidity, banking relationships and risk. I hope you enjoy the issue.
