MENAT GDP to reach $4trln by year-end: HSBC research

The Middle East is at the centre of a fundamental transformation as global capital flows shift towards new engines of growth.

Selim Kervanci, Chief Executive Officer, Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye (MENAT), HSBC Bank Middle East, said: “Traditional financial centres are adapting to a world where the Middle East and Asia are driving rather than following global investment trends.”

Kervanci was speaking this week at the HSBC MENAT Future Forum, held in the Four Seasons, Jumeriah, Dubai. In its ninth year, the forum is the region’s largest private gathering of international investors, regulators, exchanges, and market participants. With attendance at an all-time high, topping the 800 attendees of 2024, delegates from MENAT markets gathered with global investors to discuss opportunities in the region, and particularly its growing corridor with Asia.

Commenting on current liquidity conditions, Kervanci said: “Public and private markets are reshaping investment and capital flows with the Middle East and Asia emerging as the new centre of gravity. Structural reforms across the Middle East, coupled with agile policymaking, have fundamentally altered the region’s investment landscape. The growing opportunities in the two regions are creating one of the most significant shifts in the global economy, driven by the Middle East’s investment-led economic transformation, the GCC and Asia’s rising wealth and the necessity of transitioning to sustainable economies.”

While traditional markets wrestle with economic headwinds, an unprecedented $3 trillion in capital spending across the Gulf Cooperation Council is recalibrating the global investment landscape. According to HSBC Global Research, MENAT could see the average pace of growth rise to above 3.5% this year, up 1.4 percentage points on last year’s average. This should lift MENAT GDP to almost $4 trillion by the end of 2025, up more than 40% on its pre-Covid-19 level.

Speaking at the forum, Nabeel Albloushi, HSBC’s Head of Markets and Securities Services MENAT, said: “The question is no longer whether to invest in the region, but how to optimise exposure to its historic transformation. The growth in primary market activity is a key indicator, with significant issuances in both the equity and debt capital markets. This trend persisted even when global markets experienced slowdowns, highlighting investor confidence.”

Over the three days, participants took part in 1-1 investor meetings in addition to panel discussions with CEOs, Heads of Financial Market Intermediaries, Securities Regulators and experts from across HSBC’s global network for discussions focused on innovation, the development of capital markets and AI’s expanding role.

In a step change to previous years, HSBC gathered market leaders in the luxury consumer market to explore opportunities in a sector expected to generate over $20 billion by the end of the decade, almost doubling in size over 10 years.

Additionally, the forum dedicated a series of panels to exploring hedge fund strategies, quantitative investing and asset allocation, as the UAE’s hedge fund industry booms. – TradeArabia News Service