GDP of Arab League Countries 2016

by Jakub Marian

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The Arab League is a regional organization of 22 countries where (a dialect of) the Arabic language is spoken. The following table shows the nominal GDP of its member states in billions USD in 2016:

CountryNominal GDP in
billion 2016 USD
(World Bank)
Note
TOTAL (Arab League)2,434the sum of constituent
member’s GDP
Saudi Arabia646
United Arab Emirates349
Egypt336
Iraq171
Algeria156
Qatar152
Kuwait1152015, adjusted
Morocco101
Sudan96
Oman66
Lebanon48
Tunisia42
Jordan39
Libya39IMF estimate
Bahrain32
Yemen27
Palestine14IMF projection
Syria10Projection of a
2015 IMF estimate
Somalia6
Mauritania5
Djibouti22015, adjusted
Comoros1

Please note that there are no recent GDP data available for war-stricken Syria. However, the IMF estimated the nominal GDP of Syria to be just 14 billion USD in 2015, falling from 59 billion in 2011 by about 30% every year, and Syria’s economy is expected to continue shrinking until at least 2020.

How does the total compare with the rest of the world? If the Arab League were a sovereign nation, it would have the seventh largest GDP in the world, after France and before India:

Rank
(world)
CountryNominal GDP in
billion 2016 USD
(World Bank)
5United Kingdom2,629
6France2,465
Arab League (total)2,434
7India2,264
8Italy1,850

Per capita figures

Of course, the nominal GDP figures above say little about the state of each country’s economy. This is more accurately captured by nominal GDP per capita (that is, GDP divided by population):

CountryNominal GDP (2016
USD) per capita
(World Bank)
Qatar59,331
United Arab Emirates37,622
Kuwait28,140
Bahrain22,354
Saudi Arabia20,029
Oman14,982
Lebanon7,914
Arab League5,988
Iraq4,610
Jordan4,088
Algeria3,844
Tunisia3,689
Egypt3,514
Libya3,252
Palestine2,973
Morocco2,876
Sudan2,415
Djibouti1,833
Mauritania1,078
Yemen990
Comoros775
Syria543
Somalia434

The table shows that wealth is mostly concentrated in just a few Arab nations, while the rest remains relatively poor.

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