Industrial Excellence: a Key Pillar for Regional Success

To reverse a decade of damaging total factor performance, local labour market policy is shifting from basic job creation to handling active labor force shifts. Governments and companies are scaling short, modular training programmes and micro-credentials in data analytics and digital operations to gear up employees for emerging functions. Workplace-based learning and apprenticeship-style pathways are ending up being more typical as firms integrate AI tools into everyday workflows.

With oil costs anticipated to average $55-60 per barrel in 2026, regional governments are intensifying their concentrate on expense discipline and private capital mobilisation. Fiscal policy is pivoting toward the monetisation of state-owned possessions in logistics, utilities, and desalination to redirect funds toward higher-impact investments. While borrowing through sukuk and sustainability-linked bonds is anticipated to increase to fund tactical deficits, the focus remains on reinforcing non-oil income structures.

PwC Middle East financial policy and strategy partner Jing Teow said: "Having already mobilised capital and policy at scale, GCC governments are now concentrated on delivery. In 2026, the top priority is reinforcing financial resilience through more safe and secure trade and financial investment relationships, reliable AI deployment, managed labor force transitions and disciplined financial policy in a more challenging and fragmented worldwide environment.".

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

Saudi Arabia and UAE are poised to lead the Gulf area's financial expansion in 2026, supported by strong private-sector efficiency, durable domestic demand and renewed financial investment momentum, according to the latest ICAEW Economic Insight Q4 2025 report, produced by Oxford Economics. The GCC is expected to outshine most global regions peers next year, with local GDP projection to grow by 4.4%. Across the GCC, non-energy activity is projected to broaden by 4.1% in 2026, driven by strong labour markets, enhancing credit conditions and rising investment in innovation and AI-related facilities.

Oil incomes will be under pressure in the first half of 2026, production is expected to rise once again in the 2nd half of 2026, supporting the area's medium-term outlook, it specified. Saudi Arabia will stay a major contributor to GCC momentum, with GDP projection to grow 4.3% in 2026.

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

Industrial Excellence: a Key Pillar for Regional Success

Development will be supported by commercial growth and policy reforms, consisting of reduced foreign ownership guidelines that intend to promote additional financial investment. The fiscal deficit is forecasted to expand to 5.6% of GDP next year amidst softer oil rates, while the recent five-year rent freeze in Riyadh aims to ease inflationary pressures, though it may constrain future housing supply.

Strong domestic fundamentalsThe UAE is likewise positioned for another strong year of efficiency, with GDP projection to rise 5.6% in 2026 as non-oil sectors continue to expand. Tourism, trade and financial services remain crucial growth motorists, supported by population growth and continual 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 expected to get again in the 2nd half of 2026, matching ongoing financial investment in facilities, technology and worldwide trade collaborations. Hanadi Khalife, the Head of Middle East, ICAEW, stated: "This quarter's outlook reinforces how far the GCC has actually come in building diverse, resistant and worldwide competitive economies.

Scott Livermore, ICAEW Economic Consultant, and Chief Economic Expert and Managing Director, Oxford Economics Middle East, stated: "Saudi Arabia and the UAE are getting in 2026 with strong foundations. Saudi non-oil activity is acquiring rate, supported by robust need and rising investment, even as financial pressures increase.""The UAE continues to take advantage of solid domestic fundamentals, a sharp uplift in government spending and continual diversity efforts.

Navigating the Next Middle East Business Landscape

What distinguishes 2026 from preceding years is not just the acceleration of technological change, though that velocity is genuine, however rather a fundamental shift in how enterprises conceive of their GCCs' function. The is anticipated to grow to 4 hundred thirteen billion dollars by 2040, but this development masks a more profound transformation.

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

This week, we're convening more than 3000 conferences in between investors and 119 Gulf-listed business 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 follows, consisting of the expansion and continuous development of the Gulf's capital markets, and the area's growing function in global networks of capital and trade.