The Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (Dhaman) revealed that outstanding insurance commitments for investment, financing and exports destinated to Arab countries dipped by 3.5% to roughly $254 billion by the end of 2024, making up 7.6% of the global total, including 84% for insuring the credit of exports destinated to the region, 8% for insurance against political risks ($21 billion) and 8% for other cross-border insurance operations.

In a press release on the occasion of its third quarterly bulletin “Dhaman Al-Istithmar” for 2025, the Corporation said that despite mounting geopolitical tensions and risks in 2024, and their negative impacts on global trade and investment, which, thence, created increasing insurance opportunities, new insurance commitments  for investment, financing and exports destinated to Arab countries slightly rose by 0.1% to roughly $126 billion in 2024 to cover 9% of overall Arab merchandise imports.

“Dhaman” added that by monitoring the evolution of the trade, investment and finance insurance sector globally and regionally, in collaboration with Berne Union, several key findings come as follows:

·      Arab countries’ share of overall global trade, investment and finance new insurance commitments declined to 3.9% during 2024.

·      Insurance for the credit of exports to Arab countries in various maturities had the lion’s share of new commitments with a share of 95%, while insurance against political risks hit 4% and other cross-border commitments reached roughly 1%.

·      New insurance commitments were geographically concentrated in 5 Arab countries, which made up roughly 79% of the total, led by the UAE (30%), followed by Saudi Arabia (24%), Morocco (9.5%), Egypt (9.3%), and Algeria (6%).

·      Public export credit insurance agencies (ECA and multilateral agencies) retained the largest share of total new commitments for 2024, with a share exceeding 58%, while private insurance agencies had about 42% of the total.

Infrastructure, energy and manufacturing sectors held more than 52% of total new long-·      term commitments in the Arab region during 2024, with Saudi Arabia leading the list with more than 58% of new commitments in those sectors.

·      Claims paid for insurance commitments in the Arab region went down by 25% to about $534 million during 2024, with roughly 97% concentrated in insuring the credit of exports to Arab countries; also, 87% of them were paid by public agencies.

·      Recoveries from insurance commitments in the region increased by 9% to nearly $500 million, accounting for 94% of total claims paid in the region during the same year.

·      The Corporation’s cumulative operations during the period from 1975 to 2024 hit around $32 billion, including 84% for trade insurance operations worth $26.7 billion, and 16% for investment guarantee operations worth $5.2 billion.

·      Investment, trade and finance entities in 5 Arab countries benefited from more than 45% of the Corporation’s cumulative operations, with Kuwait leading with a share of 13%, followed by Saudi Arabia with 10.8%, the UAE with 8.9%, Tunisia in fourth place with 6.6%, and Egypt in fifth place with 6.2%.

It stressed that amid continued challenges due to mounting geopolitical tensions in several world regions, especially Middle East, the Corporation is seeking to bolster its overall capabilities in addressing the region’s existing and looming political and economic risks. It also commits itself to beefing up its alliances with key regional and international industry partners, mainly Berne Union and Aman Union, and all regional and world stakeholders to contribute to supporting member countries’ economies.