Skip to content Skip to Search
Skip navigation

In charts: How UK-GCC trade has soared

Cars form a large part of UK trade with the GCC Reuters
Cars were among the top five UK exports to all GCC states

The UAE was the UK’s largest trade partner in the GCC region last year, worth nearly $30 billion according to the latest data.

Saudi Arabia followed with more than $22 billion while Kuwait encountered the fastest growth rate of 118 percent as total UK-GCC trade rose sharply to $83 billion.

Below, is the story of a flourishing trade relationship in charts and tables.




Saudi Arabia

Riyadh Saudi Arabia

Total UK exports to Saudi Arabia amounted to $16.5 billion, an increase of 14.8 percent. Imports from Saudi Arabia totalled $7.1 billion, up 131.9 percent. 

Of all UK exports to Saudi Arabia, $5.8 billion were goods and $10.9 billion were services.

UAE

UK exports to the UAE came to $20 billion, an increase of 65 percent. Imports from the UAE amounted to $9.6 billion, up 59.3 percent.

Goods made up 60.3 percent of all UK exports to the UAE.

Qatar

Place Vendome Qatar

Exports to Qatar amounted to $7.2 billion, an increase of 116.1 percent. Total UK imports from Qatar came to $10.1 billion, up 118.1 percent.

A whopping 91.6 percent of exports were goods.

Kuwait

Total UK exports to Kuwait amounted to $3.2 billion, an increase of 39.3 percent. Imports from Kuwait came to $4.1 billion, up 290 percent.

Of all UK exports to Kuwait, 26 percent were goods and 74 percent services.

Bahrain

Bahrain affordable real estate

Exports to Bahrain were $877 million, up 8.9 percent. Total UK imports from Bahrain amounted to $3.1 billion, an increase of 106 percent.

Goods accounted for 56.4 percent of UK exports to Bahrain.

Oman

Oman, tower, sea

UK exports to Oman were worth $1.4 million, an increase of 49.8 percent. UK imports from Oman amounted to $355 million, up 29.4 percent.

Of all UK exports to Oman, 43.9 percent were goods and 56.1 percent were services.

Latest articles

Funds in green sukuk are placed in traceable, environmentally friendly investments such as renewable energy projects

Demand is high for Alrajhi bank’s first green sukuk

Saudi Arabia’s Alrajhi Bank has completed its $1 billion sukuk – having raised $3.5 billion in subscriptions from local and international investors – as the kingdom’s lenders push to raise funds for the government’s expensive giga-projects.  Sukuk are sharia-compliant bonds that were developed as an alternative to conventional bonds, which are not considered permissible by […]

Mubadala Energy employed the drillship West Capella for its latest gas discovery off Indonesia

Mubadala Energy makes second gas discovery off Indonesia

Mubadala Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Abu Dhabi wealth fund Mubadala, has made a significant deep-sea gas discovery in Indonesia’s South Andaman Block. The Tangkulo-1 exploration well was drilled about 65 kilometres off North Sumatra and has an estimated capacity of 80 million-100 million cubic feet per day and over 2,000 barrels of condensate. […]

Emirates chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum said he was 'confident in our resilience and ability to respond quickly' to challenges such as the recent flooding in Dubai

Dubai to receive $1bn dividend after record Emirates profits

Emirates Group will pay more than $1 billion in dividends to its owner, the Investment Corporation of Dubai sovereign wealth fund, after it announced record profits of just over $5 billion for the year. The holding group includes Dubai-based flag carrier Emirates and aircraft and airport services company Dnata. It repaid $596 million from the […]

Amit Arora the new CEO of Arada, says 'we are seeing a diverse group of investors and residents that want to buy in our communities'

Overseas buyers dominate in Sharjah’s reformed real estate

Overseas buyers in Arada’s two mega-developments in Sharjah have vastly outnumbered locals in the year-and-a-half since the emirate expanded full real estate ownership rights to non-GCC nationals. From when Aljada, Sharjah’s biggest mixed-use project, launched in 2017 until the land reform of late October 2022, Emirati nationals bought more than 63 percent of the value […]