Financial Development and Capital Markets in the Gulf

Abstract

The Gulf Co-operation Council has been successful in introducing co-operative measures among its member states in economic, social, political, cultural, and military spheres. The challenge it faces today is to extend the spirit and practice of co-operation to the financial sphere as well. More than ever before, the Gulf countries need now to develop their financial and capital markets in order to mobilize private savings and open up new domestic investment channels. They need as well to co-ordinate their efforts in order to better mobilize the resources they have at the regional level and to channel these resources into financing their target growth rates.