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To reverse a decade of weakening total element performance, local labour market policy is shifting from simple job development to handling active workforce shifts. Governments and employers are scaling short, modular training programmes and micro-credentials in data analytics and digital operations to equip workers for emerging roles. Workplace-based learning and apprenticeship-style paths are ending up being more typical as firms incorporate AI tools into daily workflows.

With oil costs forecasted to typical $55-60 per barrel in 2026, local governments are heightening their focus on expenditure discipline and private capital mobilisation. Financial policy is rotating towards the monetisation of state-owned assets in logistics, utilities, and desalination to reroute funds towards higher-impact investments. While borrowing by means of sukuk and sustainability-linked bonds is anticipated to increase to fund strategic deficits, the focus remains on reinforcing non-oil revenue structures.

PwC Middle East economic policy and technique partner Jing Teow said: "Having currently mobilised capital and policy at scale, GCC governments are now concentrated on delivery. In 2026, the concern is enhancing economic strength through more safe trade and financial investment relationships, effective AI implementation, managed workforce transitions and disciplined fiscal policy in a more challenging and fragmented global environment.".

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

Saudi Arabia and UAE are poised to lead the Gulf region's economic expansion in 2026, supported by strong private-sector performance, resilient domestic need and restored investment momentum, according to the most recent ICAEW Economic Insight Q4 2025 report, produced by Oxford Economics. The GCC is expected to outshine most worldwide regions peers next year, with local GDP projection to grow by 4.4%. Throughout the GCC, non-energy activity is predicted to broaden by 4.1% in 2026, driven by strong labour markets, improving credit conditions and increasing investment in technology and AI-related facilities.

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

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

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

Strong domestic fundamentalsThe UAE is also positioned for another strong year of performance, with GDP projection to increase 5.6% in 2026 as non-oil sectors continue to expand. Tourism, trade and monetary services stay essential growth motorists, supported by population growth and sustained domestic demand. Dubai's economy grew 4.4% in the very first half of 2025, reflecting broad-based non-oil strength.

ANSR July GCC PRs 50DR+

Oil production is anticipated to get again in the 2nd half of 2026, matching ongoing investment in facilities, innovation and worldwide trade collaborations. Hanadi Khalife, the Head of Middle East, ICAEW, stated: "This quarter's outlook enhances how far the GCC has actually come in building varied, resistant and worldwide competitive economies.

Scott Livermore, ICAEW Economic Advisor, and Chief Financial 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 gaining rate, supported by robust demand and increasing financial investment, even as fiscal pressures increase.""The UAE continues to take advantage of solid domestic basics, a sharp uplift in federal government spending and sustained diversification efforts.

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What differentiates 2026 from preceding years is not just the velocity of technological modification, though that acceleration is genuine, but rather a basic shift in how business develop of their GCCs' function. The is expected to grow to four hundred thirteen billion dollars by 2040, however this development masks a more profound change.

Rather, 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 start-ups, agile, cross-functional, insight-driven, and deeply aligned with worldwide business outcomes. This shift from execution to ownership represents perhaps the single most substantial tactical recalibration in the GCC design's advancement.

This week, we're assembling 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, companies, exchanges, and policymakers to discuss what is changing in the region, and what follows, including the expansion and ongoing development of the Gulf's capital markets, and the region's growing function in worldwide networks of capital and trade.