Middle East 2023 Top 5 Trends to Watch in GCC Economy

2022 Round Up

While war-induced shocks and cost pressures created supply chain bottlenecks, GCC economies reaped benefits from higher oil prices to earn windfall revenues. Sliding global oil demand and the COVID-19 outbreak in China pose new challenges in 2023.

Top 5 Trends to Watch in 2023

  1. Saudi Arabia—A Global Bright Spot: Saudi Arabia will remain a key growth driver with 3.0% GDP growth against meager global growth of 2.0% and the recessionary US (-0.1%) and EU (-0.4%).
  2. Comparatively Lower Inflationary Pressures: The average inflation for key GCC economies will remain significantly lower than major regions, indicative of demand resilience.
  3. Diversification Acceleration: An augmented diversification initiative through reinvestment of increased oil revenues will establish the GCC as an investor hotspot in 2023 and beyond.
  4. Robust Energy Revenues from Elevated Oil Prices: Oil prices will decline but remain elevated at ~$90 per barrel, helping to support GCC economic resilience and fuel energy capacity expansion.
  5. UAE’s Emergence as a Global Tech Hub: Implementation of crypto-friendly policies, a stronger human capital focus, and a conducive innovation ecosystem will propel UAE’s stature as a crypto and Web 3.0 hub.

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About Rituparna Majumdar, Industry Principal, Emerging Market Innovation (EMI), Frost & Sullivan,

14+ years of market research experience in pure economic analysis. Expertise covers macroeconomic research across countries. Areas of expertize include economic and industry research: Scenario-based economic projections, country profiling, data driven model based country prioritization – Indexing methodology. Data correlations, Forecasting modeling. Vehicle in operation analysis

Rituparna Majumdar, Industry Principal, Emerging Market Innovation (EMI), Frost & Sullivan,

14+ years of market research experience in pure economic analysis. Expertise covers macroeconomic research across countries. Areas of expertize include economic and industry research: Scenario-based economic projections, country profiling, data driven model based country prioritization – Indexing methodology. Data correlations, Forecasting modeling. Vehicle in operation analysis

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