DUBAI: Gulf oil economies and markets now in danger after rising conflict in Yemen. A war would probably dent confidence of international investors in the entire Gulf. It could pose a domestic security challenge for Saudi Arabia.
As a result, majority of stock markets in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) slid on Thursday But other market indicators showed little worry.
Gulf bonds barely moved and credit default swaps, used to hedge against sovereign defaults, rose only marginally; five-year Saudi CDs are up just 4 basis points in the past week.
That is because the GCC states have shown over the last few years that they’re able to insulate their economies from geopolitical threats, such as the turmoil in Iraq and the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, fund managers and analysts said.
