Sceptics have been proved wrong by the Gulf states

Over the past three years, the Gulf states faced an unprecedented campaign to distort their internal situation and drag them into the so-called “Arab Spring”, which instead should be called the “Arab Destruction”.

Part of the campaign was aimed at exploiting the financial and economic measures taken by the GCC countries, although the measures were much needed from an economic perspective as they formed the framework for a comprehensive reform process to build non oil-reliant economies.

Many Western and Arab parties as well as Iran, Islamic political organisations and non-Islamic internal opportunists were involved in the malice campaign and tried to play with figures, especially those who are unfamiliar with the GCC economies.

Three years ago when oil prices took a nosedive, we took part in a panel session on BBC, where we noted that GCC countries would be able to deal with such a drop thanks to many factors and the availability of several financial tools. However, other opponents — backed by the presenter who made incitements — tried to deny and frustrate that.

As figures don’t lie, we will have a cursory review of what has been published in the largest two gulf economies after three years of price drops.

The UAE announced that the federal budget surplus surged to $2.2 billion (Dh6.7 billion), an increase of 130 per cent in the first nine months of 2016 while Saudi Arabia released a detailed statements of financial progress made whereby deficit was down by more than half in the first quarter of 2017 to $6.9 billion.

Financial reforms

Recognising the improvements, the Saudi government took crucial decisions by which it reinstated all allowances that had been frozen or even cancelled in the public sector on the back of the oil revenue decline.

This improvement, however, was achieved not only because oil prices jumped to over $50 per barrel, but also because of financial reforms undertaken by the Gulf states, which made them even more adaptive to oil market volatility.

But to be more objective we have to ask one question — did GCC states faced financial difficulties that disadvantaged their growth rates over the past three years? Yes!

Nevertheless, there is a great difference between being unable to face difficulties and having the tools to address and overcome them. This is exactly what makes the GCC states different from other countries, including those who took part in the malicious campaign.

The financial difficulties, indeed, have not been limited to the GCC only, but spilt over to the entire world whereby China’s growth rate dwindled from 11 per cent to 6 per cent, and the same pattern was followed in the US, the EU countries, India, Brazil and Turkey, where growth rates dropped by more than half.

This is not attributed to a falling oil price but to conditions in the global economy, which was going through a volatile economic cycle.

And since modern economies are strongly interrelated due to globalisation, the GCC states are part of this economic cycle, which got even more complicated by the oil price situation. Yet, they managed to prove to be the most capable of dealing with the implications. This needs to be understood, especially by those involved in the campaign against the GCC.

Ups and downs

Therefore, Gulf citizens need to recognise the issues and put things in their contexts. For example, raising fuel prices is a national interest and a step with promising prospects. There can be no economic indicators that only move upwards. There will be ups and downs as is the case for stock exchanges and commodity prices, including oil and gold in global market.

We have to be very careful of incitements made by those who don’t wish good for the Gulf states, who are successfully addressing various issues and in a fitting manner to cope with the economic developments.

Dr Mohammad Al Asoomi is a UAE economic expert and specialist in economic and social development in the UAE and the GCC countries.