The Middle East

Home to an estimated 15.9% of the world’s proven oil reserves, Saudi Arabia is the single largest economy in the Middle East and North Africa. According to the Ministry of Finance, GDP grew by 9.3% to $746bn in 2013. While oil income is expected to continue to account for the majority of government revenues for the foreseeable future, the non-oil sector has expanded significantly in recent...

Saudi Arabia is an early adopter of telecommunications technologies. It was one of the first countries in the Gulf to launch LTE, for instance, and is now preparing to roll out even more advanced infrastructure. Services like fibre-to-the-home will soon be on offer, and while prospects for major additional growth in both the mobile and fixed-line voice segments appear limited, rising smartphone...

Government expenditure on health and social care in Saudi Arabia has more than doubled in the last five years, and in 2014 the state health sector will receive SR108bn ($28.8bn), as compared to the SR52.3bn ($13.94bn) earmarked for 2009. While the health care sector faces challenges, from a growing population and increasing levels of non-communicable diseases, government spending on infra-...

Saudi Arabia’s real estate market should present the best opportunity on the Arabian Peninsula in the coming years. It has the largest potential market in the GCC with abundant oil wealth and a growing and youthful population. But whereas its counterparts to the east have experienced the highs and lows of a full boom-and-bust cycle, and the headlines that accompany this, the Kingdom has ticked...

In line with plans to make the Kingdom a regional centre for logistics and trade, the 2014 budget put $17.76bn towards transport and infrastructure, the third-highest allocation. Plans for upgrades across all elements of the transport network including ports along the Red Sea and a national rail network will help to position Saudi Arabia as a base for logistics operations in the region,...