Khaleel and Ahmad sit smoking at a coffee shop outside the Kuwaiti stock exchange, discussing who is to blame for the malaise and paralysis gripping their country. The frank exchange between two bank employees reflects how, despite being one of the richest countries in the world due to its ownership of 10 per cent of global oil reserves, Kuwait has been unsettled by the financial crisis.

Investors and traders from the middle classes have demonstrated against the government, politicians are threatening to grill the prime minister in parliament on a series of controversies, and Kuwait is the only Gulf country to have been forced publicly to bail out a bank – after Gulf Bank lost $1.4bn (£933m, $1.1bn) in derivatives trading.