Retail

The retail sector in Kuwait has achieved rapid growth in recent years, with retailers benefitting from strong economic fundamentals, evolving consumer tastes and a relatively unsaturated market. These factors are set to continue underpinning further growth and diversification over the coming years.The retail market, including wholesale, was worth $5.8bn in 2013, or 3.3% of GDP. While the trend has been a positive one, growth has fluctuated in recent years. In 2009, as the global economic crisis struck, year-on-year market growth fell by 23.4% before surging back by 16.5% in 2010. Declines of 8.7% and 3% followed in 2011 and 2012, respectively, but in 2013 the market recovered again, expanding by 11.9%. The sector’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is forecast for 6.7% between 2013 and 2018, with the supermarket and hypermarket segment set for a CAGR of 9.6%.