The pace of deal-making across the Middle East has been little affected by the global coronavirus pandemic. Even as economic growth fell to multi-year lows in 2020, data from Dealogic demonstrates that the volume of agreed deals remained constant, even if values slipped back from the highs recorded the previous year.
Economic recovery in 2021 — prompted by easing Covid-19 restrictions and resurgent oil prices — has propelled the number of deals struck in the region to a five-year high, with the combined value coming in just below the highs of 2019 (see figure 1).
