While the number of workers in the Cooperation Council is about 29 million workers, who constitute 0.9 percent of the total workers in the world.
The Gulf countries attracted $ 497.2 billion in foreign direct investment during 2019, representing 1.4 percent of the total foreign direct investment balance in the world.
The gross domestic product, at current prices of the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, combined, reached more than $ 1.64 trillion in 2019.
Saudi Arabia topped the Gulf countries with a product of $ 793 billion (2.97 trillion riyals), representing 48 percent of the Gulf total.
In second place after Saudi Arabia comes the UAE with about 421 billion dollars, representing 26 percent of the total, then Qatar 183 billion dollars, constituting 11 percent of the total.
Kuwait ranked fourth, with a GDP of $ 135 billion, representing about 8 percent of the total Gulf countries by the end of 2019.
Oman came in fifth place with $ 77 billion, accounting for 5 percent of the total, then Bahrain came in sixth place with $ 39 billion, equivalent to about 2 percent of the total for the GCC countries.
Two-way trade
Intra-GCC trade reached $ 91.3 billion in 2019. The UAE topped the Gulf countries with exports amounting to $ 48 billion, representing 53 percent of the Gulf total.
In the second place, Saudi Arabia came with exports amounting to 23.8 billion dollars, representing 26 percent of the total, then Bahrain, 7.1 billion dollars, constituting 8 percent of the total.
Oman ranked fourth with exports amounting to $ 6.2 billion, representing about 7 percent of the total Gulf countries by the end of 2019.
Kuwait came in fifth place with 3.8 billion dollars, constituting 4 percent of the total, then Qatar in sixth place with 2.4 billion dollars, equivalent to about 3 percent of the total of the GCC countries.
Intra-oil trade in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council reached about $ 73 billion in 2019.
Intra-non-oil trade represents 4.4 percent of the GCC GDP in 2019, which indicates the availability of opportunities to increase the volume of intra-GCC trade, and benefit from the decisions of the Supreme Council included in the 1981 economic agreement and the 2008 Gulf Common Market document on encouraging intra-trade.
The GCC countries export less than a quarter of national merchandise exports of non-oil origin among them, while 76 percent of these exports are to foreign trading partners
Accordingly, there is a great scope for activating intra-GCC trade, given the absence of customs tariffs between GCC countries on products of national origin, and the transportation costs are relatively low compared to transport to commercial partners outside the council.
Foreign reserves
The foreign reserves of the Gulf countries amounted to about 620.5 billion dollars by the end of 2019 (2.33 trillion riyals).
Saudi Arabia acquired the lion’s share of the foreign reserves of the Gulf states by the end of 2019, with $ 499.5 billion, representing 80.5 percent of the total
The foreign reserves of the Gulf countries include investments in securities abroad, foreign exchange and deposits abroad, reserves with the International Monetary Fund, special drawing rights, and gold.
The countries' foreign exchange reserves help them to support the local currency, exchange rate policy, and economic activities.
These reserves help finance part of the budget deficit "if it occurs", as well as repay debts and provide imports of goods in exceptional circumstances. It also enables countries' economies to absorb economic shocks in general, whether local or global.
In second place after Saudi Arabia comes Kuwait with 40.2 billion dollars, representing 6.5 percent of the total, then Qatar, 39.4 billion dollars, constituting 6.4 percent of the total.
While the UAE came fourth with foreign reserves of $ 21.3 billion, representing 3.4 percent of the total Gulf countries by the end of 2019, noting that the UAE's foreign reserves do not include reserves or special drawing rights at the International Monetary Fund.
Oman came in fifth place with 16.6 billion dollars, which constitutes 2.7 percent of the total, then Bahrain in sixth place with foreign reserves of 3.5 billion dollars, which do not include reserves or special drawing rights at the International Monetary Fund, but only includes foreign currencies and gold
It is noteworthy that the report was based on foreign reserves data with Gulf countries at the end of December 2019, except for data for Kuwait and Bahrain at the end of November of the same year.
Economic Reports Unit
