Strong growth in Qatar’s projects market resulted in the Gulf Projects Index growing by 0.1 per cent to $2.6 trillion for the week up to 3 January.

Qatar’s projects market grew by 1.3 per cent as 17 new projects worth $3.2bn in total were added to its index. The biggest of these was the $1.9bn second phase of Qatar Petroleum’s Mesaieed housing project. The second-largest addition to its index was an accommodation scheme for Qatar University.

Oman was the only other GCC state to record significant growth, with its projects index growing by 0.4 per cent. The increase is attributable to the launch of eight new projects worth a total of $515m. The largest of these was an estimated $195m mixed-use development in Muscat for the Renaissance Group.Saudi Arabia, the region’s biggest projects market, and Bahrain remained flat as the GCC index recorded 0.1 per cent growth on the previous week.

The UAE and Kuwait were the only two Gulf countries to record a fall in the value of their projects markets, with drops of 0.2 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively. The fall in the UAE index was a result of the completion of three projects and the removal of schemes worth $1.2bn that failed to reach construction stage.

Kuwait’s projects market fell in value to $176.7bn as the United Tower project in Kuwait City was completed and a $200m construction scheme was shelved.

Outside the GCC, Iran’s projects market remained relatively flat, while Iraq’s projects index recorded growth of 0.1 per cent.

The total value of projects in Iraq rose to $363bn as a new $200m fertiliser project and a $245m university scheme were added to its index. Iraq remains the region’s fastest-growing projects market, recording 41.2 per cent year-on-year growth.