Experts: Gulf countries suffer from oil revenues drop at the same time of UK’s departure
UK’s departure of the EU is a perfect opportunity for gulf countries to invest in UK’s market, especially after the extreme sterling pound price fall which was not witnessed before in the last 30 years.
Analysts expect that gulf countries are to benefit from UK’s departure rather than incur any losses. In order to get these benefits, they need to make use of available opportunities and invest in British companies and projects, especially real-estate projects. Although, there are many available opportunities, analysts urge gulf investors to wait for a while until the vision could be clearer.
Ihsan Buhulaiga, an economic expert, pointed out that UK’s departure influence on gulf countries will be limited; he explains that UK’s membership in the EU was not a complete one. He said, “Britain has been always peculiar among other EU countries and the conflict of Britain’s role in the EU has always existed.”
Buhulaiga said that UK’s departure happened to come in the wrong time for gulf countries as they suffer from oil revenues drop. Many of the gulf countries have started to look for alternatives, for instance, Saudi Arabia has launched its “2030 Vision” and” Saudi National transition programme 2020″. Although, Ihsan asserted that some gulf investors have historical interest in Britain and are actually investing there, he urged them to wait for a clearer vision of Britain’s historical decision’s consequences.
Fawaz Alamy, a Saudi expert in the world trade, has also foreseen that gulf countries’ benefits of UK’s departure surpass the losses. He added: “Britain’s economy has reached its worst state, especially after sterling pound price fall which was not witnessed before in the last 30 years. Thus, it is a golden opportunity to take advantage of.” UK’s departure of the EU means it has cancelled the agreements of free trade and EU customs union. Consequently, exporting any goods from UK to EU may have a high-priced custom tariff in the future, he added. Alamy highlighted that the 27 EU countries internal trades represents 70 per cent of the total trade number; while the external trades represents 30 per cent only. “Gulf countries are different in regard of internal trades as their internal trade is estimated at 11 per cent; this is due to oil being the main revenue of gulf countries”, he added.
