Mubasher: The Middle East has attracted $80 billion inflows from the bond market in 2019, Sjoerd Leenart, head of Global Corporate Banking and regional head for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa at JP Morgan Chase & Co, told Bloomberg TV’s in an interview.

This interview came on the sidelines of the Bloomberg Capital Markets Forum that kicked off today in Abu Dhabi.

Moreover, this year has also seen an amount of $25 billion in public equity market inflows, Leenart added.

Saudi Arabia attracts a large part of these inflows following its inclusion in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (MSCI) and the FTSE Russell’s emerging market index, he noted.

He also highlighted shifting to the bond market from syndicated loans as a significant measure to lure foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Middle East.

The region’s strong credit rating, as well as the zero-rate bonds offered to investors, are also good concepts to attract further FDI, Leenart pointed out.