A shopper on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road near the Smart Village business park, Egypt, which has a Friday-Saturday weekend. Dana Smillie for The National
A shopper on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road near the Smart Village business park, Egypt, which has a Friday-Saturday weekend. Dana Smillie for The National
A shopper on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road near the Smart Village business park, Egypt, which has a Friday-Saturday weekend. Dana Smillie for The National
A shopper on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road near the Smart Village business park, Egypt, which has a Friday-Saturday weekend. Dana Smillie for The National

MENA

Which countries have a Friday-Saturday weekend?

Several countries in the region have shifted their working week to align with the West and non-Arab world to improve economic competitiveness

The National

December 07, 2021

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The working week in the Arab world has traditionally revolved around Friday being the centre of the weekend as the sacred day of worship in Islam.

While that has meant some Muslim majority countries make Thursday and Friday their weekend, many have sought to align more closely with the non-Islamic world by designating a working week from Sunday to Thursday with weekends falling on Friday and Saturday.

Then there are some in the region that use the same working timetable as the West and non-Arab world in a bid to improve economic competitiveness and to be in line with global markets.

The UAE has become the latest country to shift its weekend to Saturday and Sunday starting from January.

Here is the situation across the Middle East:

GCC

Working weeks across the Gulf Co-operation Council countries are still Sunday-Thursday.

In 2013, Saudi Arabia changed the start of its two-day weekend from Thursday-Friday to Friday-Saturday to help co-ordinate business and banking days with the rest of the world.

Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar have also switched to a Friday-Saturday weekend.

Any country following the Sunday-Thursday model will have four working days overlapping with Western and multinational businesses.

Switching to the Saturday-Sunday weekend will add one more day.

Lebanon (Saturday and Sunday)

In 2017, Lebanon adopted a new official pattern of 35 weekly hours in government offices with Saturday and Sunday as a weekend.

But the multi-confessional country sought to appease as many people as possible with the move. Public sector work hours are Monday to Thursday 8am to 2pm, Friday 8am to 11am — allowing Muslims to attend noon prayers — and 8am-1pm on Saturday with Sunday off to allow Christians to pray.

Lebanon has among the highest number of public sector holidays in the world, taking into account the religious days of many of the 18 official sects within the country.

Tunisia (Saturday and Sunday)

In 2016, the authorities decided to consider Saturday as a working day in some public institutions but then Tunisia started following the Monday-Friday working week in 2021.

On Friday, many businesses take an extended lunch break for afternoon prayers.

Shoppers pass through the narrow alleys in the souks of the Medina in Tunis. Getty Images
Shoppers pass through the narrow alleys in the souks of the Medina in Tunis. Getty Images

Morocco (Saturday and Sunday)

The standard working week in Morocco is 48 hours, or eight hours a day, Monday-Friday.

Israel (Friday and Saturday)

The relevant laws in Israel designate Friday and Saturday as the official weekend as the Jewish Shabbat runs from dusk on Friday to dusk on Saturday.

Algeria (Friday and Saturday)

The country had a Thursday-Friday weekend since 1976 but changed the pattern to Friday-Saturday in 2009.

Egypt (Friday and Saturday)

Egypt's weekend starts on Friday and extends into Saturday. Some private companies, however, adopt a half-day on Thursdays.

Iraq (Friday and Saturday)

In Iraq, the weekend refers to Friday and Saturday.

Jordan (Friday and Saturday)

The working week in Jordan is Sunday-Thursday.

Libya (Friday and Saturday)

In 2006, the Libyan authorities decided to change the weekend to Friday-Saturday instead of having only Friday off.

Members of a family shop at a supermarket in Libya's capital Tripoli. AFP
Members of a family shop at a supermarket in Libya's capital Tripoli. AFP
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Updated: November 13, 2025, 12:38 PM
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