Below, you will find a sample of bar charts that I have designed/conceived during the past few years. Enjoy!
This chart shows, in a dynamic format, the evolution of Saudi exports between 2011 and 2021. Notice the gradual decline of the US and the growing preponderance of Asian customers. You can filter by region, in case you hadn’t noticed!
Made with Flourish
The two bar charts below are part of a chapter I wrote on the economic impacts of the Red Sea crisis, as part of a broader report examining the consequences of the Houthi attacks and maritime disruption: Navigating Troubled Waters: The Houthis’ Campaign in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. These figures were designed by the IISS Design team.
This is a bar chart race I designed during my time as a Research Associate at the Gulf International Forum, showing the evolution of the GCC’s largest sovereign wealth funds throughout the past decade. Notice the tremendous growth of Saudi Arabia’s PIF, and the dominance of Emirati sovereign wealth funds when considered in aggregate. These funds are a key instrument to transition to a post-oil economy, although they may have different ways of trying to get there. Some, like the PIF, are focused on investing domestically across a variety of sectors. Others, like Mubadala, focus on tech, energy and renewables, trying to bring relevant expertise into the UAE. And others, like the KIA and ADIA, focus on long-term value creation and generating savings for the prosperity of future generations.
The graph below displays the evolution in military expenditures in the Gulf region throughout three decades, from 1990 to 2022. When it comes to military expenditure, Saudi Arabia is clearly in its own league, ahead of all its neighbors. In recent years, Iran has been spending only a fraction (less than 10%) of what Riyadh is spending. See this piece in Bourse & Bazaar for more context.
The chart below shows the evolution of the GDP for each country in the Gulf region from 1998 to 2022. Notice the effect of sanctions on Iran’s GDP growth, and the ebbs and flows of GDP growth that result from fluctuations in global oil prices.
I designed the two charts below for a research paper I wrote in the spring of 2023, looking at the importance of the Middle East region for China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In that paper, I argued that taking the Middle East as a bloc may not be the best approach; instead, we should focus on specific countries and even port cities which play a significant role in the BRI. Here’s an excerpt from the paper:
Certain countries possess a combination of a strategic geographical location, well-developed logistics and trade facilities (ports and free zones), large consumer markets, and availability of hydrocarbons, which determine the relative importance each individual state has in the BRI’s grand scheme.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt are the top priorities; Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Turkey, Israel, Oman, Algeria, and Kuwait are important due to their role as energy suppliers and/or because of their large consumer markets; and most of the Maghreb countries, Libya, most states in the Levant, Yemen, and Bahrain, are a lot less relevant to the BRI’s success. These are less attractive due to their not-so-strategic geographical location, lack of major transshipment and deep-water ports, and/or relatively smaller and harder to access consumer markets.
Chinese Trade Volume with Selected Partners, in billion USD (2019).
Source: Observatory of Economic Complexity.
Value of China’s Overseas Investment and Construction (2013-2022).
Source: AEI China Global Investment Tracker.