Bankers who moved to the region to work on a long-forecast series of mergers and acquisitions will have more time than expected to take in the sunshine.

The value of mergers and acquisitions in the Middle East has fallen to $19.3bn so far this year, according to Dealogic – half the value of the deals over the same period last year. Exclude Israel and the value of deals has fallen by two thirds to only $13.3bn.