Global Economic Outlook 2020: Gulf Region—Stagnating Growth Clouds the Gulf Region's Outlook

GDP growth in the Gulf region should improve moderately in 2020, up from 1.4 percent in 2019. Over the next decade, growth will improve to 2.7 percent on average annually, at about the same rate as the global economy but well below the average of 3.5 percent for emerging markets. The main drag on growth is that slower investment growth is not sufficiently compensated for by improvements in productivity growth. Governments and firms need to combine efforts to put the region’s growth performance on a more sustainable footing by stimulating innovation and improving the efficiency with which labor and capital are deployed in the economy.