Investment banking revenue in the Middle East slumped 45 per cent to $103m in the first three months of the year, as the global financial crisis and a slowing trickle of petrodollars took its toll on Gulf states.

A year ago, international investment banks and asset managers flooded the region, hoping that the Gulf’s hydrocarbon-fuelled growth would offset the slowdown elsewhere. In the third quarter of 2008 revenue peaked at $296m (€224m, £200m), Dealogic, the data provider, said on Thursday.