Evaluating Legacy Systems and Future Economic Strategies

To reverse a years of deteriorating total aspect performance, local labour market policy is moving from easy job creation to managing active workforce shifts. Federal governments and employers are scaling short, modular training programmes and micro-credentials in data analytics and digital operations to equip employees for emerging functions. Workplace-based learning and apprenticeship-style pathways are becoming more typical as firms incorporate AI tools into day-to-day workflows.

With oil prices anticipated to average $55-60 per barrel in 2026, local governments are heightening 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 redirect funds towards higher-impact financial investments. While loaning through sukuk and sustainability-linked bonds is anticipated to increase to fund tactical deficits, the focus stays on enhancing non-oil earnings structures.

PwC Middle East financial policy and strategy partner Jing Teow stated: "Having already mobilised capital and policy at scale, GCC governments are now concentrated on delivery. In 2026, the top priority is strengthening economic strength through more safe and secure trade and investment relationships, effective AI implementation, handled workforce shifts 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 region's financial growth in 2026, supported by strong private-sector performance, resistant domestic demand and restored investment momentum, according to the most recent ICAEW Economic Insight Q4 2025 report, produced by Oxford Economics. The GCC is anticipated to outperform most worldwide regions peers next year, with local GDP forecast 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, improving credit conditions and increasing financial investment in technology and AI-related facilities.

Although oil earnings will be under pressure in the first half of 2026, production is anticipated to rise once again in the 2nd half of 2026, supporting the region's medium-term outlook, it specified. Saudi Arabia will stay a major factor to GCC momentum, with GDP projection to grow 4.3% in 2026.

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

Industrial Excellence: a Key Pillar for 2026 Success

Development will be supported by industrial expansion and policy reforms, including relieved foreign ownership guidelines that intend to promote further financial investment. The fiscal deficit is projected to broaden to 5.6% of GDP next year in the middle of softer oil costs, while the recent five-year lease freeze in Riyadh intends to reduce inflationary pressures, though it may constrain future real estate supply.

Strong domestic fundamentalsThe UAE is likewise placed for another strong year of performance, with GDP forecast to rise 5.6% in 2026 as non-oil sectors continue to broaden. Tourist, trade and financial services stay crucial development drivers, supported by population development and continual domestic need. Dubai's economy grew 4.4% in the very first half of 2025, showing broad-based non-oil strength.

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

Oil production is expected to select up once again in the 2nd half of 2026, complementing continuous 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, durable and worldwide competitive economies.

Scott Livermore, ICAEW Economic Advisor, and Chief Economic 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 speed, supported by robust demand and increasing investment, even as fiscal pressures increase.""The UAE continues to benefit from solid domestic basics, a sharp uplift in government spending and sustained diversity efforts.

Accelerating Dubai Industrial Expansion through Strategy

What differentiates 2026 from preceding years is not simply the acceleration of technological change, though that velocity 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, however this development masks a more extensive change.

Rather, they ask whether these centers drive development, own profit-and-loss duty, and add to competitive distinction. In 2026, the most successful GCCs will act like internal startups, nimble, cross-functional, insight-driven, and deeply aligned with international company results. This shift from execution to ownership represents possibly the single most significant strategic recalibration in the GCC design's advancement.

This week, we're convening more than 3000 conferences in between investors and 119 Gulf-listed companies with a combined worth of $2.4 trillion at the HSBC GCC Exchanges Conference 2026, in London. We're bringing together investors, companies, exchanges, and policymakers to discuss what is altering in the area, 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.