	bank sees modest recovery in gulf arab economies the emirates industrial bank has predicted a modest economic recovery in the gulf arab states following higher oil revenues a bank study carried by the emirates news agency wam said total oil revenues of the six gulf cooperation council gcc countries were likely to reach billion dlrs this year from billion in the gcc groups bahrain kuwait oman qatar saudi arabia and the united arab emirates uae the bank said the improvement would result from higher oil prices made possible by last december s opec accord to restrain overall group production these curbs have pushed up oil prices from around eight dollars a barrel in mid to around dlrs all signs point to the possibility of a modest recovery in the economies of these gcc countries although this expected growth will not be similar to that of the s boom years the study said it added however that gcc states would experience higher budget deficits this year because of needs arising from past recession and the difficulty of making fresh spending cuts the study said the combined gcc bugdet deficits would rise to billion dlrs from billion last year it said lower oil exports cut the gcc states combined trade surplus to billion dlrs in from billion in the uae suffered a pct drop in gross domestic product to billion dirhams last year from billion in it added reuter 
