The Middle East oil exporters are grappling with depressed demand in their key market, China, due to the coronavirus outbreak. The economies of the Arab Gulf countries are feeling the double sting of a sizeable loss of oil demand in Asia and a plunge in oil prices as the markets fear a significant slowdown in global economic growth because of the outbreak. If that wasn’t bad enough for the biggest economies in the Gulf, business activity in the non-oil sector continues to deteriorate in OPEC’s biggest producer Saudi Arabia and in OPEC’s third-largest producer, the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The start to 2020 hasn’t been good for the Saudi and UAE economies as they cut oil production in the new round of OPEC+ cuts, and they cut more than they are expected to, as they are trying to lead by example in the OPEC+ group’s efforts to draw down […]