The Middle East

The construction industry in Kuwait is among the strongest in the region and a rising star in the country’s non-oil economy, with its steadily growing population, tightly regulated land market and relatively wealthy populous all combining to fuel demand for new building. Between 1995 and 2013, Kuwait’s population doubled from 1.8m to 3.6m,...

Across the GCC, spending cuts have come to the forefront of fiscal discussions as hydrocarbons exports continue to fetch lower prices on global markets, resulting in decreased revenues. Subsidies, in particular, have been on the chopping block. In January 2016, Qatar announced plans to raise petrol prices by 30% to help address its expected...

Prior to the 20th century, Kuwait’s merchants and pearl divers leveraged the country’s location to offer their wares on trade flows connecting British India with the Ottoman Empire’s Arabic-speaking realms. The 1938 discovery of oil in the Burgan field did not disrupt those trade flows but replaced their cargoes with oil, which became the...

Real estate has long been a mainstay of Kuwait’s non-oil economy. In 2014 real estate and construction services together accounted for 10.6% of non-oil GDP, according to the IMF. Although a range of factors, including lower oil prices, have affected growth projections across the GCC, Kuwait’s real estate sector is particularly well-poised to...