The DIFC (in partnership with <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/">The National</a>, natch) is hosting an event next Sunday to release the IMF's latest regional outlook for the Gulf. I'm not a huge fan of predictions lately - it'd be a gas to do a little research project on what organisation X, important-person Y and analyst Z said about economic growth in the UAE during the past six months, since you'd likely get a comically diverse grouping of predictions that expose the whole enterprise as flawed. At the same time, the IMF is probably worth listening to.<br/><br/><b>Masood Ahmed</b>, the IMF's director of the Middle East and Central Asia, is presenting the report, followed by a panel discussion chaired by <b>Nasser Saidi</b>, the DIFC's chief economist. Smart guys all around.<br/> UPDATE: By popular demand (well, the demand of one person, at least), here's an update on who's going to be at this forum and whether it's open to the public. Actually, this promises to be a doozy. In addition to the aforementioned Dr. Saidi and the IMF's Masood Ahmed, the panel is to include <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Howard Handy</span> of Samba Financial Group (brilliant guy) and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">MR Raghu</span> of Markaz in Kuwait (another brilliant guy). And yes, it appears to be free for anyone who wants to attend. The registration is . And here's the agenda: .