The contraction in Saudi Arabia’s projects market in the week ending 26 June is the country’s biggest decline since February, and helped drive a 0.3 per cent fall across the Gulf Projects Index as a whole.

Saudi Arabia has the region’s largest projects market, with the value of all active schemes coming in at $1.2 trillion, $364bn more than the value of all ongoing projects in the UAE, the region’s second-biggest market.

A total of six construction and transport schemes were put on hold in Saudi Arabia over the week, removing billions of dollars from the kingdom’s projects market.

Elsewhere in the region, Iraq saw a decline in its market as it continued its struggle to contain the jihadist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis). The country’s projects market fell by 0.2 per cent as five schemes were put on hold. The contraction leaves it down 24 per cent compared with the same period last year.

All other nations on the Gulf Projects Index saw expansions over the week, with Iran leading the gains ahead of the deadline for a nuclear deal on 30 June. Its rise of 1.9 per cent was the result of progress made on several energy and petrochemicals schemes.

Kuwait was the region’s third-biggest gainer, expanding by 0.8 per cent. This was driven by Kuwait National Petroleum Company’s (KNPC’s) approval for a budget extension for the Al-Zour New Refinery Project.

An additional KD800m ($2.6bn) was approved for the scheme, according to Mohammed Ghazi al-Mutairi, CEO of KNPC.

The UAE’s projects market stayed flat at $830bn, as eight schemes put on hold were offset by the announcement of 20 new projects worth $5.3bn.