GCC's constant GDP grows 3.3% to $456.3bn in Q4 2024

Arab News

2 days ago

RIYADH: The gross domestic product of Gulf Cooperation Council countries rose 3.3 percent at constant prices to $456.3 billion by the end of 2024, according to a new report.
The report, citing the Statistical Center for the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, highlighted that non‑oil activities accounted for 70.6 percent of the region's GDP at constant prices in the final quarter of 2024, while oil activities contributed 29.4 percent.
'The contribution of non‑oil activities to the GCC GDP at constant prices reached 70.6 percent by the end of the fourth quarter of 2024,' Oman News Agency reported, citing the report.
The GDP growth aligns with broader trends across the GCC, where nominal GDP reached $587.8 billion in the final quarter of 2024, growing 1.5 percent year on year, with non-oil sectors contributing 77.9 percent of the total growth.
Among member states, Qatar recorded the highest real GDP growth at 4.5 percent, followed by the UAE at 3.6 percent and Saudi Arabia at 2.8 percent, highlighting non-oil expansion as the main driver across the region.
Several economic trends underpin this performance. Real GDP across the GCC rose 2.4 percent in the final three months of 2024, with non‑oil GDP expanding by 3.7 percent while oil GDP contracted by 0.9 percent due to voluntary OPEC+ production cuts
Non‑oil sectors such as manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, construction, finance, real estate and public administration collectively underpinned this growth, with manufacturing alone contributing 12.5 percent and retail trade nearly 9.9 percent of nominal GDP.
In Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom's economy grew 1.3 percent in 2024, with fourth‑quarter real growth of 4.4 percent compared to the same period in 2023. Non‑oil activities grew 4.6 percent, significantly outpacing a 4.5 percent contraction in oil output as government spending increased by 2.6 percent, Reuters reported.
Strategic programs such as the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program contributed SR986 billion ($262.8 billion) to non‑oil GDP in 2024, representing 39 percent of the nation's non‑oil output, with overall non‑oil activities accounting for 55 percent of total GDP.
The GCC's pivot away from hydrocarbon dependence is underpinned by major investments in tourism, logistics, manufacturing, and finance, combined with regulatory reforms and infrastructure expansion.
National reforms such as Saudi Vision 2030, the UAE's Economic Vision, Qatar's National Vision 2030 and Oman's Vision 2040 are all central to this shift.