Industrial Excellence: a Key Pillar for Regional Success

To reverse a decade of weakening total factor productivity, local labour market policy is moving from easy job development to managing active workforce shifts. Governments and companies are scaling short, modular training programmes and micro-credentials in information analytics and digital operations to gear up employees for emerging roles. Workplace-based learning and apprenticeship-style pathways are becoming more common as companies integrate AI tools into day-to-day workflows.

With oil prices forecasted to average $55-60 per barrel in 2026, local governments are intensifying their focus on expense discipline and personal capital mobilisation. Financial policy is pivoting toward the monetisation of state-owned properties in logistics, utilities, and desalination to reroute funds toward higher-impact financial investments. While borrowing through sukuk and sustainability-linked bonds is expected to increase to money strategic deficits, the focus stays on reinforcing non-oil earnings frameworks.

PwC Middle East financial policy and strategy partner Jing Teow said: "Having already mobilised capital and policy at scale, GCC governments are now focused on delivery. In 2026, the concern is enhancing economic resilience through more safe trade and financial investment relationships, efficient AI deployment, managed labor force shifts and disciplined financial policy in a more difficult and fragmented international 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 performance, resilient domestic demand and renewed investment momentum, according to the current ICAEW Economic Insight Q4 2025 report, produced by Oxford Economics. The GCC is expected to exceed most international areas peers next year, with local GDP projection to grow by 4.4%. Throughout the GCC, non-energy activity is forecasted to broaden by 4.1% in 2026, driven by strong labour markets, improving credit conditions and rising investment in technology and AI-related facilities.

Although oil incomes will be under pressure in the very first half of 2026, production is expected to increase once again in the second half of 2026, supporting the region's medium-term outlook, it stated. Saudi Arabia will stay a significant factor to GCC momentum, with GDP projection to grow 4.3% in 2026.

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

Can Strategic Analytics Drive Middle East Industrial Growth?

Growth will be supported by industrial growth and policy reforms, including relieved foreign ownership rules that aim to promote further investment. The financial deficit is predicted to broaden to 5.6% of GDP next year amidst softer oil prices, while the recent five-year rent freeze in Riyadh intends to alleviate inflationary pressures, though it might constrain future real estate supply.

Strong domestic fundamentalsThe UAE is likewise placed for another strong year of performance, with GDP projection to increase 5.6% in 2026 as non-oil sectors continue to broaden. Tourism, trade and monetary services remain key growth chauffeurs, 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 expected to get again in the second half of 2026, matching ongoing investment in facilities, innovation and international trade partnerships. Hanadi Khalife, the Head of Middle East, ICAEW, said: "This quarter's outlook reinforces how far the GCC has can be found in structure varied, resistant and internationally competitive economies.

Scott Livermore, ICAEW Economic Advisor, and Chief Economic Expert and Handling Director, Oxford Economics Middle East, stated: "Saudi Arabia and the UAE are going into 2026 with strong structures. Saudi non-oil activity is getting pace, supported by robust need and increasing financial investment, even as fiscal pressures increase.""The UAE continues to benefit from strong domestic basics, a sharp uplift in government spending and sustained diversification efforts.

Industrial Excellence: a Key Pillar for Regional Success

What differentiates 2026 from preceding years is not just the velocity of technological change, though that velocity is genuine, but rather a fundamental shift in how business envisage their GCCs' function. The is expected to grow to 4 hundred thirteen billion dollars by 2040, but this growth masks a more extensive transformation.

Rather, they ask whether these centers drive development, own profit-and-loss responsibility, and contribute to competitive distinction. In 2026, the most effective GCCs will behave like internal startups, agile, cross-functional, insight-driven, and deeply aligned with global company outcomes. This shift from execution to ownership represents possibly the single most considerable tactical recalibration in the GCC design's advancement.

Today, we're assembling 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, companies, exchanges, and policymakers to discuss what is altering in the region, and what follows, including the growth and continuous advancement of the Gulf's capital markets, and the area's growing role in worldwide networks of capital and trade.