Download a PDF copy of this week’s insight piece here. The IMF issued its latest Regional Economic Outlook for the Middle East region... Read More
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The article titled “Climate goals: a priority for business growth” was written for the Dubai World Trade Centre, and published... Read More
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Recent & Upcoming Events
Jun 17: “Stability Redefined- Who Authors the Future?”: e-Policy Circle 7 webinar (invite only)
Jun 15: Discussion on Lebanon with Carnegie Middle East Center (invite only)
Jun 4: Panelist at OMFIF webinar on Sovereign debt restructuring in emerging markets
May 22: Speaker at the YPO Lebanon webinar
May 17: Panelist at Sheikh Rashed Virtual Majlis on the “Effects of COVID19 on the UAE’s economy”
May 13: Panelist at NUS Middle East Institute webinar “The GCC’s Double Dilemma: Tackling COVID-19 and Falling Oil Prices”
May 6: Panelist at the CEBC webinar “A Pandemic, Oil Price Collapse, A Recession: Is the Future still Green?”
Publications / All
The MENA-OECD Working Group on Investment and Trade‘s 2018 meeting was... Read More
The commencement speechat the Universite St. Joseph was delivered by... Read MoreIn the Media
Dr. Nasser Saidi spoke to Al Arabiya Al Hadath on 2nd April 2021 about Lebanon’s subsidies and international reserves. Watch the interview (in Arabic) below from 1:31:40 onwards: 
Dr. Nasser Saidi’s comments appeared in an Arab News article titled “Markets jump on Shareek investment package” on 31st March 2021. The comments are posted below. Nasser Saidi, a Middle East economics expert, said the intention was to “jump start” the Saudi economy in the wake of the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “This would be a massive increase in investment that will likely modernize and upscale infrastructure, including digital. As proposed, it should be strongly supportive of non-oil growth, increase overall productivity and lead to job creation for Saudi’s young population,” he added. Saidi added that the move from dividends to investment could be a positive one: “This... Read More
Dr. Nasser Saidi joined Manus Cranny and Yousef Gamal El-Din on the 28th of March, 2021 as part of the Bloomberg Daybreak: Middle East edition, discussing the blockage of traffic in the Suez Canal and the fragility of global supply chains, how the US should focus on getting the economy going again and Covid19 risks rather than focusing on inflation, and how the China-US confrontation is affecting market sentiment. Watch the interview below. The original link to the full episode: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-03-28/-bloomberg-daybreak-middle-east-full-show-03-28-2021-video
Dr. Nasser Saidi’s comments appeared in the Gulf News article titled “How things went from bad to unbearable in Lebanon“, published 22nd March 2021. Comments are posted below: Citing security concerns, banks shut down and the minute they re-opened, were unable to accommodate depositors frantically trying to withdraw their savings. There were no more dollars in the country, and the state could not come up with logical answers as to where the money had vanished. The lion’s share had been consumed by the Central Bank of Lebanon, which insisted on an overvalued pegged exchange rate, says Nasser Saidi, an economist, former economy minister, and ex-deputy governor of the Central Bank.... Read More
Dr. Nasser Saidi spoke to Al Arabiya Al Hadath’s Lara Nabhan on 17th Mar 2021 about the rapid depreciation of the Lebanese Pound. In the interview, Dr. Saidi touches upon on the collapse of the LBP due to a deliberate Inflation Tax imposed by the Diab government and the Banque du Liban, failed peg to the dollar, burst Ponzi scheme & “financial engineering” with an ill-designed subsidy policy, 80% of which benefited traders and smugglers – not the poor and needy. Watch the full interview (in Arabic) below:
