{"id":110010,"date":"2026-06-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/?p=110010"},"modified":"2026-06-14T03:12:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T03:12:31","slug":"saudi-to-outgrow-gulf-despite-a-downgrade-world-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/06\/14\/saudi-to-outgrow-gulf-despite-a-downgrade-world-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi to outgrow Gulf despite a downgrade, World Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saudi Arabia will outgrow every other major Gulf oil producer this year<\/strong> despite the conflict choking traffic through Hormuz. The World Bank trimmed the Kingdom\u2019s 2026 growth forecast to 3.1% in its June Global Economic Prospects report (pdf)<\/a>, down 1.2 percentage points from its January forecasts, but still the shallowest downgrade in the GCC.<\/p>\n

The gap is wide: <\/strong>The bank sees Qatar\u2019s economy shrinking 5.7% this year, while Kuwait is set for a 6.3% contraction and Iraq an even bigger 8.9%. The UAE and Oman are both forecasted to grow 2.4%, 0.7 percentage points below Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The credit goes to the East-West pipeline<\/strong> running oil<\/a> from the Eastern Province to Yanbu, which is letting Riyadh maintain a chunk of exports, the bank said. Gulf neighbors lack a comparable exit.<\/p>\n

Higher oil prices will also soften the blow. <\/strong>Brent is expected to average USD 94 \/ bbl in 2026, up 36% from 2025 and more than 50% above the January projection. The disruption keeping energy markets tight will prove a near-term revenue boost for oil producers still able to export through the strait, the bank added.<\/p>\n

\n

What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about the strait. <\/strong>The baseline assumes shipping stays severely disrupted through July before normalizing by year-end, with Saudi growth rebounding to 4.9% in 2027 \u2014 an upgrade of half a point from January projections.<\/p>\n

The risk lives in the downside scenario: <\/strong>If Hormuz stays effectively shut into 4Q 2026, Brent surges to USD 115 \/ bbl and global growth drops to 2.1%. A longer closure would test the pipeline\u2019s viability as it has a finite capacity ceiling, standing currently at 7 mn bbl \/ d, although Aramco said last month it plans to invest in increasing its capacity<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saudi Arabia is poised to outpace its Gulf neighbors this year in terms of growth thanks to the East-West pipeline bypass<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2571],"tags":[27,10,381,335,442],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-110010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","tag-economy","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-gcc","tag-gdp","tag-world-bank","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"55cb926f-e878-4332-ae2c-2e570c8882d9","order":"3","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2026\/4\/549.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Trimmed, but leading","related_issue":[110005],"teaser":"Saudi Arabia is poised to outpace its Gulf neighbors this year in terms of growth thanks to the East-West pipeline bypass"},"yoast_head":"\nSaudi to outgrow Gulf despite a downgrade, World Bank - 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