It is no longer a question of whether the credit crunch will hit the financial markets of the Middle East, but how bad and lasting the impact will be now that it has.

The crisis has all but paralysed interbank lending across the region, caused stock markets to crash - by as much as 50% in the case of the Dubai Financial Market - prompted sovereign wealth funds and central banks to intervene, and, since July, halved the value of crude oil, upon which much of the region's wealth is based.