The wave of popular protests are beginning to have an impact on the region’s projects market, as Bahrain’s index recorded a 3.6 per cent fall in the seven days up to 9 March.

The Gulf projects market rose by only 0.1 per cent to $2.6 trillion for the week, according to regional projects tracker MEED Projects.

The driver of growth in the index was the 0.8 per cent increase recorded by Iran. The country’s growth was spurred by the launch of two oil pipeline projects worth a total of $2.6bn.

The Iraq market grew by 0.1 per cent as a $200m fluid catalytic cracker unit project in Basra was added to the database.

The GCC market, which accounts for about 74 per cent of the Gulf’s projects index, recorded a marginal fall. The effects of continued protests in Bahrain appear to be having an effect on the projects sector as the kingdom recorded the biggest fall in the Gulf. The main reason for this was two construction schemes worth $2.9bn being put on hold.

The recent protests in Oman have so far not had a negative impact on the sultanate’s projects market. The country recorded an increase in its projects market of 1 per cent, the highest jump in the region. The main reason for this was the announcement of $1bn-worth of expansion projects on Jindal Shadeed’s Sohar steel complex.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia recorded minor growth in the total value of projects planned or under way. The UAE’s market grew by 0.3 per cent as a result of the announcement of new projects worth $1.9bn in total. The largest of these is the estimated $1.2bn development for the Abu Dhabi police’s Security Search Department.

The Gulf’s projects market is still down on last year, recording a 9 per cent drop over this period.