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| IMF Headquarters in Washington DC [FILE PHOTO] |
Dubai: The economic outlook for the Middle East and North Africa
region is mixed. Most of the region’s oil-exporting countries are growing at
healthy rates while the oil importers face subdued economic prospects, the IMF
says in its latest assessment.
The IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook for the Middle East and
Central Asia, released November 11 in Dubai, projects growth in the Middle East
and North Africa region at 5.1 percent in 2012, up from 3.3 percent in 2011.
Owing to higher oil prices and production, the region’s
oil-exporting countries—Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen—are forecast to expand
by 6.6 percent in 2012 before moderating in 2013.
But faced with a difficult external environment, growth
among the region’s oil importers—Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon,
Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan, Sudan, and Tunisia—will register just above 2
percent in 2012. In the Arab countries in transition, continued domestic
disruptions are also holding back growth.
“The biggest challenge facing governments in the Arab
countries in transition is how to manage the rising expectations of populations
that are becoming increasingly impatient to see a transition dividend at a time
when there are threats to near-term macroeconomic stability and the margin for
policy maneuver is limited,” Masood Ahmed, Director of the IMF’s Middle East
and Central Asia Department, told a press conference in Dubai.