Trump’s “Liberation Day” triggered a selloff in risk assets and sent shockwaves through corporate boardrooms worldwide.
The newly instated US tariffs, which come into effect from April 5, will pummel export industries in Europe and Asia and precipitate adverse outcomes in global economic growth, consumer price inflation, cross-border capital flows and emerging market sovereign debt stress metrics.
In the Gulf, the reverberations are considerable. The region supplies 16 percent of US aluminium imports, a trade flow now under strain from the new tariffs.
But the bigger threat is indirect – through global oil markets and the cost of sovereign borrowing. Brent crude dropped nearly 6 percent on Liberation Day, pricing in fears of dampened demand as global supply chains brace for disruption.
The purchasing power of the Gulf states declines as the US dollar depreciates. Tariff-driven rises in imports from Asia and…
