Gulf States Growth

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that relations between the United States and its Gulf Arab partners are rock solid, despite fears by some of them that they might be left out of discussions aimed at ending the war with Iran. Rubio used a three-day, three-nation trip to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain this week to try to convince all the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council that the Trump administration does indeed have their backs in negotiations to end the war President Donald Trump and Israel launched on Feb. 28. That conflict sharply curtailed the region's oil exports and saw several Gulf countries take direct retaliatory Iranian missile and drone hits. "They've shared with us some very concrete concerns, ideas," Rubio said in Bahrain, the last stop on the trip. "And when I say concern, the biggest concern is that they really just want to be informed every step along the way as we enter these negotiations at both the technical and political ...

The $150 billion of deals involving Gulf firms in 2024 marks a 62 per cent increase from the same period last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg

The gains, due to high oil prices, are expected to provide 'firepower' to the region's sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), one of the largest in the world

IMF is projecting flat growth this year for Saudi Arabia