The Gulf Area
The Gulf Economic Area is represented by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. GCC is a regional organisation created in May 1981. All the GCC member states are members of the Arab League and Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are members of OPEC. With a population of 38.35 million, GCC had a nominal GDP of $807.453 billion at the end of 2007. The IMF's prediction for GCC's GDP at the end of 2008 is $1,112.076 billion. The GCC countries are characterised by high levels of GDP per capita, with Qatar expected to overtake Luxembourg and rank first in the world at the end of 2008.
These countries have experienced rapid economic growth, resourced by soaring oil revenues. Having reached an average annual rate of 7 percent, this growth is expected to continue into the immediate future. The GCC countries are home to 38 percent of the world's reserves of crude oil and 22 percent of the world's reserves of natural gas.
Constituting the core of the Middle East region, the GCC countries have strong economic relations with the EU and the US. These countries supply 50 percent of EU's energy needs and one third of all US oil needs. The GCC states are EU's sixth largest export market and the EU is GCC's first trading partner.
