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Dubai, UAE — December 2025 — The World Financial institution’s Gulf Financial Replace for Fall 2025, forecasted that the UAE economic system will develop by 4.8 % in 2025.
The report, titled “The Gulf’s Digital Transformation: A Highly effective Engine for Financial Diversification,” confirmed the UAE continues to attain sturdy and broad-based development balanced throughout oil and non-oil sectors, solidifying its management in diversifying its export base.
In accordance with the Emirates Information Company, the report projected diversified financial development throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council area for 2025, with Saudi Arabia at 3.8 %, Bahrain at 3.5 %, Oman at 3.1 %, Qatar at 2.8 %, and Kuwait at 2.7 %.
Its evaluation rested on three pillars: monitoring macroeconomic developments, analyzing the evolution of financial diversification over the previous decade, and specializing in digital transformation.
Whereas diversification efforts throughout the GCC present average progress, promising indicators have emerged lately.
A speedy digital transformation and accelerated adoption of synthetic intelligence are highlighted as key drivers. All GCC international locations boast superior telecommunications networks, with greater than 90 % 5G protection and reasonably priced high-speed web.
Giant investments in knowledge centres and high-performance computing are strengthening AI readiness, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia rising as leaders each regionally and internationally.
This progress is supported by enabling ecosystems that embody amenities, financing for innovation, and authorities adoption of generative AI purposes.
World Financial institution Division Director for the Gulf Cooperation Council, Safaa El Tayeb El Kogali, said that diversification and digital transformation at the moment are a necessity for long-term financial stability and prosperity.
She famous the GCC’s digital leap is exceptional, with sturdy infrastructure, rising computing energy, and rising AI-related expertise enhancing the area’s potential for management and innovation, supplied environmental and labour-market challenges are addressed proactively.
The report additional indicated that ladies’s participation in STEM fields within the Gulf exceeds the worldwide common, boosting the area’s digital competitiveness.
To maximise the advantages of those developments, the World Financial institution recommends supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in adopting AI to reinforce innovation and implementing coaching programmes to upskill the workforce and mitigate labour-market gaps.