Like Hamlet, the oil-rich Gulf countries face a dilemma: to peg or not to peg. This dilemma--whether to keep their national currencies pegged to the dollar as a single anchor currency or whether to opt for other alternatives--is profound and has far-reaching monetary implications. Clearly, the...

This past weekend, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) held a summit meeting--the third in the history of the cartel that was established in 1960. Of the 13 heads of the member states, 11 were present at the two day-meeting in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Conspicuous...

We are pleased to introduce to our readers the newly-designed , which incorporates many of the suggestions made by readers since the MEMRI Economic Blog was initially launched in mid-July. The blog relies heavily, but not exclusively, on economic information and analysis published in the Arab...

The price of crude oil has been climbing to new heights almost daily. With oil producing nations receiving mounting criticism for this situation, an article entitled “Please don’t blame us for $93 oil: OPEC” appeared in the United Arab Emirates daily newspaper Khaleej Times . In...

We publish today an article on the state of education in the Arab world, originally published in the Saudi weekly, al-Majallah. ( ). The article draws heavily on a comprehensive study conducted by the United Nations Development Programme, the findings of which were less than encouraging in several...