La crise économique : courte synthèse en anglais

For the GCC economies and its Interiors industry, 2009 and 2010 were difficult years. The construction industry, that is fundamental to both, faced unprecedented challenges following a global economic meltdown, negative investor sentiments leading to numerous project cancellations, the political unrests in Bahrain and Oman, oversupply challenges plunging the rentals and sales in commercial arena, increasing attrition rates among expat labour force and similar other issues. It was therefore not surprising that the recovery made by the economy and the industry in 2011 was fragile though promising and set the pace of growth for 2012. The industry recovered its momentum and continued a sustained yet cautious growth path in 2012, with prudent economic policies encouraging developments across all spheres of infrastructure, housing, commercial, retail, medical and educational sectors. Whilst the steadily rising population and booming economy fuels the construction of affordable housing schemes and commercial developments in Saudi Arabia, the real estate activities in UAE will witness greater stability on back on a healthy growth in tourism. The fastest growing economy of Qatar will witness progressive developments as the country aims to fulfil its vision for 2030 in addition to preparing itself for hosting the coveted Football world cup in 2022. Greater focus on affordable homes and tourism activity will provide the much required impetus for Oman to make a comeback whilst Kuwait will benefit from an increase in demand for private housing due to undersupply similar to Bahrain where there exists significant demand for affordable housing projects as developers continue to focus on the premium segment. With oil prices expected to remain stable, any further increase on Government spending will support investment and consumer spending thereby having a positive effect on GDP growth which serves well for overall economy and construction sector in particular.

Building projects worth over US$ 46.5 billion were completed in 2011 within all the building sectors including Residential, Commercial, Hospitality, Retail sectors, Medical, Educational sectors etc and is likely to reach US$ 79.75 billion in 2012 (as of current construction schedule) thus posting a robust growth of 71 percent year on year. Figure 1 provides the sector wise split of the building construction projects completed and expected completion in GCC as of September 2012.

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