Gulf consulting market expected to cross $8bn this year

• Growth of 12% predicted for 2025
• Slowdown from 13% in 2024
• Driven by Saudi Arabia

The Gulf consulting sector is expected to outperform the rest of the world in 2025 with growth of 12 percent, twice as fast as the United States.

Although the regional market is predicted to be worth more than $8 billion, growth will be at a slightly slower pace. Last year the GCC market grew by 13 percent.

Demand will be driven by Saudi Arabia, which is carrying out large-scale infrastructure projects, some in anticipation of hosting the 2029 Asian Winter Games, Expo 2030 and the 2034 Fifa World Cup.

Shrugging off a recent dispute between UK professional services company PwC and its major client, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF, the kingdom’s consultancy market is expected to grow by 13 percent to just under $5 billion. That’s according to a report by the London-based market research company Source Global Research.

“Despite not having reached its peak, the GCC’s consulting market is starting to lose some of the breakneck speed of its expansion,” said Dane Albertelli, a Source Global researcher who worked on the report.

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“While growth is looking to be sustained into 2025, rates in some sectors, for instance in the public sector, are set to dip down into single digits.”

Still, the overall consultancy market in the six-member GCC will grow at twice the rate of the sector in the United States, Source Global said. The US is the largest market in the world, at around $99 billion. 

Of the companies the researchers polled, two thirds said they would increase their reliance on external support in 2025. 

As a result, growth in the Gulf consulting market will remain higher than the global average for years to come, but clients will become more cost-conscious, Source Global said.

“As the market matures and companies in the GCC are becoming more financially savvy about their consulting spend, they are setting budgets and sticking to them, to ensure that they secure the best bang for their buck,” Albertelli said.