Driving Regional Industrial Growth through Strategy

To reverse a decade of weakening total factor performance, local labour market policy is shifting from simple task production to handling active workforce transitions. Federal governments and employers are scaling short, modular training programs and micro-credentials in data analytics and digital operations to gear up employees for emerging roles. Workplace-based knowing and apprenticeship-style pathways are ending up being more common as firms incorporate AI tools into everyday workflows.

With oil costs anticipated to average $55-60 per barrel in 2026, local governments are intensifying their concentrate on expenditure discipline and personal capital mobilisation. Fiscal policy is rotating towards the monetisation of state-owned properties in logistics, energies, and desalination to reroute funds towards higher-impact financial investments. While borrowing via sukuk and sustainability-linked bonds is anticipated to increase to money tactical deficits, the focus remains on enhancing non-oil earnings frameworks.

PwC Middle East economic policy and strategy partner Jing Teow stated: "Having currently mobilised capital and policy at scale, GCC governments are now concentrated on shipment. In 2026, the top priority is enhancing financial resilience through more protected trade and financial investment relationships, effective AI release, managed workforce transitions and disciplined fiscal policy in a more challenging and fragmented worldwide environment.".

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

Saudi Arabia and UAE are poised to lead the Gulf region's financial expansion in 2026, supported by strong private-sector efficiency, resilient domestic need and restored investment momentum, according to the newest ICAEW Economic Insight Q4 2025 report, produced by Oxford Economics. The GCC is expected to surpass most international regions peers next year, with local GDP forecast to grow by 4.4%. Throughout the GCC, non-energy activity is projected to expand by 4.1% in 2026, driven by strong labour markets, enhancing credit conditions and increasing financial investment in technology and AI-related infrastructure.

Although oil profits will be under pressure in the very first half of 2026, production is anticipated to rise once again in the second half of 2026, supporting the region's medium-term outlook, it specified. Saudi Arabia will remain a significant contributor to GCC momentum, with GDP forecast to grow 4.3% in 2026.

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

Operational Excellence: a Key Driver for Regional Success

Growth will be supported by industrial growth and policy reforms, consisting of eased foreign ownership rules that intend to stimulate further financial investment. The financial deficit is forecasted to expand to 5.6% of GDP next year amidst softer oil prices, while the current five-year rent freeze in Riyadh intends to reduce inflationary pressures, though it may constrain future real estate supply.

Strong domestic fundamentalsThe UAE is likewise positioned for another strong year of efficiency, with GDP projection to increase 5.6% in 2026 as non-oil sectors continue to expand. Tourist, trade and financial services stay crucial growth drivers, supported by population development and sustained domestic demand. Dubai's economy grew 4.4% in the first half of 2025, showing broad-based non-oil strength.

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

Oil production is anticipated to choose up once again in the second half of 2026, matching ongoing investment in facilities, innovation and global trade partnerships. Hanadi Khalife, the Head of Middle East, ICAEW, said: "This quarter's outlook enhances how far the GCC has been available in structure varied, durable and internationally competitive economies.

Scott Livermore, ICAEW Economic Consultant, and Chief Financial Expert and Managing Director, Oxford Economics Middle East, said: "Saudi Arabia and the UAE are going into 2026 with strong structures. Saudi non-oil activity is acquiring rate, supported by robust need and increasing investment, even as fiscal pressures increase.""The UAE continues to take advantage of solid domestic basics, a sharp uplift in government costs and sustained diversification efforts.

Operational Excellence: a Strategic Pillar for Regional Growth

What distinguishes 2026 from preceding years is not just the acceleration of technological modification, though that acceleration is genuine, but rather a basic shift in how business envisage their GCCs' purpose. The is anticipated to grow to four hundred thirteen billion dollars by 2040, but this growth masks a more profound improvement.

Instead, they ask whether these centers drive innovation, own profit-and-loss duty, and add to competitive differentiation. In 2026, the most successful GCCs will act like internal startups, nimble, cross-functional, insight-driven, and deeply lined up with worldwide organization results. This shift from execution to ownership represents perhaps the single most substantial tactical recalibration in the GCC model's advancement.

Today, we're convening more than 3000 conferences in between investors and 119 Gulf-listed companies with a combined value of $2.4 trillion at the HSBC GCC Exchanges Conference 2026, in London. We're bringing together financiers, business, exchanges, and policymakers to discuss what is altering in the area, and what comes next, including the expansion and continuous development of the Gulf's capital markets, and the region's growing role in worldwide networks of capital and trade.