Changes in emerging Asia impacting oil-exporting GCC countries

Emerging Asia has been the source of most of growth in the world economy in the last decade and this is leading to structural changes that are also impacting the oil-exporting countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a leading economist has said.
Camille Accad, an economist at Asiya Investments, an investment firm specialising in Emerging Asia investments, said that the rising economic activity in Asia has contributed to a significant increase in demand for energy goods, which has led the region to become the GCC's main export partners.
"In 1990, the more developed economies (G3) - the US, EU and Japan - were buying 45 per cent of all GCC exports, while Asia made up only about 15 per cent. 23 years later, the situation has reversed: the G3 now only buys 23 per cent of the region's exports, while emerging Asia gets 43 per cent," Accad said.

"Many reasons have contributed to this phenomenon, including the migration of manufacturing to emerging Asia, the US' increasing reliance to its domestic energy supplies, emerging Asia's massive rise in infrastructure construction and its ever growing middle class," Accad was quoted by Saudi Gazette as saying.
However, this is not the only change in world's trade structure. Imports to GCC have also witnessed a shift in trend as emerging Asia has become GCC's main source of imports.
"20 years ago, the Gulf was importing only 15 per cent of its merchandise from emerging Asia, while more than half of imported goods were coming from the G3. Today, the Gulf imports more from emerging Asia than it does from the G3, making up more than 35 per cent of its total import share," said Accad.