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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5359488/site/newsweek/
The Middle East: The Cash Haven
(Newsweek) Christopher Dickey - The Middle East is enjoying a huge boom in real estate and equities, driven largely by Arabs bringing billions home from America to escape post-9/11 counterterrorism measures that, in effect, target them and their money. 9/11 "got the Arabs to finally invest in the region. Some money came back from the West, but more importantly, the oil-price windfall profits have remained here," says one of Jordan's leading entrepreneurs. In 2003, the Saudi stock index jumped 76%; Kuwait's rose 102%; Egypt's, 152%. Prices for prime real estate rose by as much as 100% last year in Dubai, Beirut, Cairo, and Saudi Arabia.