Gulf economies to pick up speed next year, with fall in oil prices biggest risk | Reuters

Gulf economies to pick up speed next year, with fall in oil prices biggest risk | Reuters

Economies in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council will grow faster next year than previously thought, according to a Reuters poll of economists who warned a decline in oil and gas prices was the biggest risk to their outlook.

The oil-rich region will benefit from an increased COVID-19 vaccination rate, rising oil prices and easing of lockdown restrictions this year and next, the poll suggested.

But while these may lift short-term economic prospects, they are vulnerable to the region's high reliance on global oil demand amid an economic slowdown in China, the world's largest crude importer.

Still, the Oct. 8-20 Reuters poll of 21 economists forecast an improvement in the economic fortunes of most oil-exporting nations after they were battered by the pandemic and the record collapse in oil prices last year.