THE EDGE INSIGHTS
Latest Economic Insights
Economic developments that matter to regional and global markets, analysed daily.
Market Wrap MENA-Asia 3 August: Gulf Firms While Korea Falls 5 Percent and Oil Slides
Gulf equities held firm on Monday even as crude oil tumbled on the OPEC+ decision to raise September output, while Asian markets…
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Qatar Opens Minimum-Tax Registration as 15% Pillar Two Rules Take Effect
Qatar’s General Tax Authority opened registration on 2 August for the global and domestic minimum tax, giving multinational groups three months from…
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AstraZeneca Explored Merger With Bristol Myers Squibb in Early-Stage Talks, Report Says
AstraZeneca has explored a merger with Bristol Myers Squibb, according to a Financial Times report published on Sunday 2 August and carried…
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Emirates NBD Egypt to Acquire HSBC Egypt’s Entire Retail Banking Business
HSBC has agreed to sell the whole of its retail banking business in Egypt to Emirates NBD, in a transaction the British…
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Syria Says More Than 95% of Old Currency Replaced as Final Window Opens
The Central Bank of Syria said on Sunday that, according to preliminary estimates, the overall replacement rate of the old Syrian pound…
Read more →Market Wrap MENA 2 August: Egypt Leads With a 1.6 Percent Gain as the Gulf Rises
Gulf and Egyptian markets opened the week broadly higher on Sunday, with every regional benchmark in positive territory, as the region traded…
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OPEC+ Approves 188,000 Barrel a Day September Increase as Sources Signal Q4 Pause
Seven OPEC+ countries approved a combined increase of 188,000 barrels a day in their oil production targets from September, completing the phased…
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German ifo Index Rises to 86.6 as Expectations Improve but Conditions Worsen
The ifo Business Climate Index for Germany rose to 86.6 in July from 85.7 in June. The headline improvement, however, came entirely…
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Central Banks Bought 289 Tonnes of Gold in Q2, a Record Second Quarter
Central banks added 289 tonnes of gold to reserves on a net basis in the second quarter of 2026, the strongest second…
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China’s Factory and Services Gauges Both Fall Below 50 in July
China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 49.2 in July from 50.3 in June, and the non-manufacturing index fell to 49.0 from…
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Euro Area Inflation Rises to 2.9% in July as Core Edges Up to 2.5%
Euro area annual inflation is expected to have risen to 2.9 percent in July, from 2.8 percent in June, according to the…
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US Core PCE Inflation Holds at 3.3% in June as Fed Splits Three Ways
Core inflation on the Federal Reserve's preferred gauge was unchanged in June, holding at 3.3 percent over twelve months, while the headline…
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Ukraine’s Sea Corridor Stalls as Shipowners Halt Calls at Odesa Ports
Vessel calls at Ukraine's Black Sea ports have been suspended since 22 July, and the reason is not a government order. Deputy…
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FIFA Drops $20 Billion Commercial Venture Sale After Confederations Revolt
FIFA has abandoned a plan to move its commercial and event operations into a subsidiary and sell a minority stake in it…
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Egypt’s Reported 12 Percent Electricity Rise Is Not on the Official Schedule
Reports circulated on 31 July and 1 August that Egypt had raised household electricity prices by an average of 12 percent while…
Read more →Tether’s Gold Reserve Hits 146 Tonnes After a 14-Tonne Second-Quarter Buy
Tether added 14 tonnes of physical gold to the reserves backing its dollar stablecoin during the second quarter of 2026, lifting its…
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Hyperscaler Capital Spending Nears $785 Billion as the BIS Warns of a Bust
Moody's puts hyperscaler capital expenditure at 785 billion dollars in 2026, a figure the agency describes as hyperscaler capital spending rather than…
Read more →Three Fed Officials Wanted a July Hike as Warsh Faces an Early Test
The Federal Open Market Committee held the federal funds target range at 3.50 to 3.75 percent on 29 July, but it did…
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The Week Ahead: OPEC+ Decides September Output, the US July Jobs Report Lands, and the Global PMIs Open August
The coming week opens August with a data-heavy calendar rather than a decision-heavy one, and it is framed by two events that…
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Market Wrap US-Europe-Asia 31 July: Kospi Surges 17.9 Percent in Record Chip Rally
A historic rebound in semiconductor and artificial-intelligence shares swept across Asia on Friday and carried into Western markets, with South Korea's Kospi…
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Commodities Wrap 31 July: Cocoa Jumps 5.5 Percent as Oil Rebounds and Metals Slip
Commodities traded mixed on Friday, with crude oil rebounding and soft commodities surging while the precious-metals complex gave back part of the…
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IMF Board Completes Egypt’s Seventh Review, Unlocking About $1.8 Billion
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund completed Egypt's seventh review under the Extended Fund Facility and the second review under…
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South Korea Industrial Output Rises 2.3 Percent in June
All industry production rose 2.3 percent on the month in June and 4.2 percent on the year, with manufacturing output up 6.8…
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Bank of Japan Holds at 1.0 Percent With One Dissent
The Bank of Japan kept its policy rate at 1.0 percent by an eight to one vote and revised its inflation outlook,…
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- Europe Market Wrap 19 October: All Nine Indices Fall as France’s Fiscal Worries Spread
- Europe Market Wrap 9 October: All Nine Indices Rise as Basic Resources Jump 2.99 Percent
- US Market Wrap 12 October: The Dow Alone Rises 0.38 Percent as the Nasdaq 100 Falls 0.71 Percent
- Asia Market Wrap 7 October: All Eight Indices Fall as Seoul Drops 1.98 Percent
- Europe Market Wrap 16 October: All Nine Indices Rise to Cap the Stoxx 600’s Best Week Since June