The rise of the region’s sovereign wealth funds shows, like nothing else, the importance of the petrodollar boom. As oil prices toy with record highs of $100 a barrel, even more scrutiny is falling on the hydrocarbon-rich region’s funds.

Morgan Stanley, the US investment bank, estimates sovereign wealth funds control $2,500bn, half the official currency reserves in the world, rising to about $17,500bn over the next 10 years. Over the same period, when global financial assets are expected to double from $100,000bn, sovereign funds’ share of global wealth could almost quadruple from 2.5 per cent to 9 per cent.