Business Extra

The announcement that Carrefour has shut stores in Kuwait, Bahrain and other countries made headlines across the region. But behind the immediate news lies a bigger story that international retail giants are struggling to keep Middle East consumers interested.

Consumers are increasingly turning their backs on big-name internationals and favouring local brands, home-grown experiences and practices that resonate with their regional identity. This is not necessarily a rejection of global brands but instead it is to meet customers' needs and values.

In this episode of Business Extra, host Salim Essaid digs into the shift, which is seeing global names starting to fade from store shelves, and asks how far it goes.

We hear insights from Aarti Nagraj, deputy business editor at The National, and John E Katsos, professor of management, strategy and entrepreneurship at the American University of Sharjah.

It’s a big week for global economies tied to the dollar with the US Federal Reserve widely expected to cut interest rates at its meeting.

Interest rates are a signal of how the Fed views the health of the economy and where it thinks things are heading. The decision heavily affects the economies of Gulf countries such as the Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, whose currencies are tied to the dollar.

It also directly affects consumers. For example, a cut could make it cheaper to borrow to buy a car or a home, and to use your credit card, but may also lower returns on your savings.

In this week's Business Extra, host Salim Essaid is joined by James Swanston, a senior Middle East and North Africa economist at Capital Economics, to explain how the Fed's decision on interest rates could ripple through the region’s economies.

People across the UAE and the region have noticed web pages loading more slowly, shows taking longer to stream and Wi-Fi going in and out.

This is because the undersea cables that support all those things have been damaged.

In this case, we’re looking at cuts to cables that lie at the bottom of the Red Sea. Around the globe, such cables run along seabeds and are the very foundation of internet connectivity.

Depending on where in the world you are, you might have a different set of these cables to thank for your ability to go online.

On this episode of Business Extra, host Salim A Essaid discusses what exactly makes this incident so critical, what’s next, and how it all comes back to the web user.

Despite billions being spent over the past few years on artificial intelligence investments, a recent MIT Media Lab report found 95 per cent of organisations have produced zero returns so far.

But is that really the case for companies who are offering AI solutions? How are those in the Middle East performing?

In this episode of the Business Extra podcast, host Salim Essaid is joined by Mohammad Abu Sheikh, founder and chief executive of CNTXT AI, a UAE-based data and AI solutions company.

Later, he is joined by Amit Joshi, a professor of AI, analytics and marketing at the IMD Business School to look at the bigger picture and the disconnect between implementing AI and profit.

And to explore the impact of this on hiring AI specialists and attracting talent, Dana Alomar, The National's future editor, joins the conversation.

Syria’s central bank has announced plans for a currency overhaul that will involve eliminating two zeros from its pound and printing new banknotes.

The Syrian pound has lost more than 99 per cent of its value since the start of the civil war in 2011, and economists are warning that a new currency means little without real policy reform.

In this week’s episode of Business Extra, host Salim Essaid looks at Syria's move, considers what it means for the economy and questions whether it will work.

He is joined by Hani Abuagla, senior market analyst at XTB Mena in the UAE, and The National’s Senior Business Reporter Fareed Rahman.

Nuclear energy can be a flashpoint for tension in the Middle East.

A handful of Gulf countries, including the UAE, have signed new agreements with the US in the past few months – each nation with its own advantages and goals in the sector.

These agreements focus heavily on civilian nuclear energy. But they are also part of a broader goal to futureproof Gulf economies.

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Company, or ENEC, is the body responsible for all things nuclear in the UAE.

In July, it expanded an agreement with US nuclear power company Westinghouse. It designs and sells the AP1000 – an advanced reactor known for its good economics.

This partnership, according to a statement from ENEC, will entail: “Efforts to accelerate the deployment of that AP1000 reactor, exploration of opportunities in US nuclear projects and quadruple nuclear capacity by 2050.”

On this episode of Business Extra, host Salim Essaid hears from Noam Raydan of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy to explore why momentum in the area of nuclear partnerships is building.

New US tariffs are coming into effect this week. US President Donald Trump's newest deadline of August 1 is his latest attempt to secure trade agreements with vital global economies – and bring in more revenue for the US.

Take Monday’s deal between the US and the EU. They avoided a trade war by agreeing that the EU would pay 15 per cent tariffs on most goods – half the rate that Mr Trump had threatened.

But other big shifts are also taking place. US tariffs are pushing international exporters to find more reliable trade partners, and countries in the Middle East are stepping up to the plate.

On this episode of Business Extra, host Salim Essaid hears from Simon Evennet, a professor of geopolitics and strategy at the IMD business school in Stockholm, to understand what this means for the region.

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Crypto has reached a critical moment in its history.

The US released a slew of game-changing bills for cryptocurrency last week, signalling a long-anticipated seal of approval of crypto from the world’s largest economy.

Those bills are the Clarity Act, something called the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, and – the Genius Act, which is what we are focusing on today.

It is all expected to have major implications for the Middle East, which has already established its own level of crypto adoption.

On this episode of Business Extra, host Salim Essaid hears from two experts; Naeem Aslam, CIO at Zaye Capital Markets in London, and Ola Doudin, CEO of UAE-based cryptocurrency exchange BitOasis.

Editor’s note: We want to hear from you! Help us improve our podcasts by taking our two-minute listener survey. Click here.

A whole new property market is to open up to international buyers and it is from the Middle East’s largest economy.

Starting in January 2026, Saudi Arabia will allow foreign investors to buy property in the kingdom. It has left global investors eager to find out how they can tap into Saudi Arabia’s fast growing real estate market, which is expected to reach more than $94 billion by 2028.

But how easy will it be for a foreign investor to buy property in the kingdom? Will there be a language barrier? Are the kingdom’s regulatory systems able to work with foreign buyers yet?

We explore these questions and more on this episode of Business Extra, where host Salim A Essaid hears from Faisal Durrani, a partner and head of research for the Middle East and North Africa at Knight Frank Middle East.

The absence of income tax has helped to attract people from around the world to move to the Gulf. But one country is set to change direction.

Oman recently announced it will be the first country in the region to introduce personal income tax.

While some countries, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have other types of taxes, such as VAT, on most goods and services, Oman is making history with a levy on personal income.

The tax is not set to take effect until 2028, but it has already raised questions about whether other Gulf states will follow suit.

Deepthi Nair, Assistant Business Editor, discusses the subject with David Daly, a partner at the Gulf Tax Accounting Group in the UAE.