Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries could accelerate the region’s GDP growth over the next decade from 3.8% to 5.4%, according to a new report published by the World Government Summit, in partnership with Strategy& Middle East, part of the PwC network.
The research found that GCC countries could accelerate the region’s economic growth by adding more than $2.5 trillion to GDP over the next decade by leveraging the Productivity Potential Index (PPI) to “identify the weakest determinant of productivity and then lifting that to the level of the best-in-class countries”.
“At a time when the world is looking to become more sustainable, it is essential to have appropriate tools for measuring economic progress that take into account criteria such as the environment and biodiversity, along with a range of social capital measurements,” said Dima Sayess, partner and Ideation Center lead at Strategy&. “This new index fills an important gap.”
The report introduced a new way of measuring productivity. The new framework comes with an online policy simulator that enables users to see how the 25 countries in the first sample stack up against each other across 19 criteria grouped into six categories, including environmental impact, health, innovation, and the quality of institutions.
“The potential boost to GCC economic growth from a better understanding of the determinants of productivity is impressive and, if its findings are acted upon, this could substantially improve the lives of people in the region over the next decade,” said Chadi Moujaes, partner with Strategy&, part of the PwC network. “We hope our research will help governments everywhere identify more accurately where they can make a significant difference to their productivity and economic growth performance.”
