What was the name of the 1982 stock-market crash in Kuwait’s unofficial Souk Al-Manakh exchange?

The 1982 stock-market crash in Kuwait’s unofficial Souk Al-Manakh exchange was the Souk Al-Manakh crash.

Souk Al-Manakh was an unofficial market where investors traded shares in companies that were not listed on Kuwait’s formal exchange. Speculation expanded rapidly, with post-dated checks and informal credit allowing traders to control positions far larger than their available cash.

When confidence failed, many checks could not be honored. The resulting chain of defaults created an enormous financial crisis for Kuwait. The government intervened, and the final losses were measured in billions of U.S. dollars, making the episode one of the largest market collapses of its time.

The crash is sometimes confused with a conventional exchange failure. Souk Al-Manakh was specifically an unofficial market, and its unusual credit system was central to the scale of the disaster. The episode also led to reforms of Kuwait’s financial and regulatory arrangements.