Oil exporting countries in the Middle East, central Asia and north Africa are facing renewed pressure to push through reforms that could diversify their economies and boost productivity. The IMF has recommended a number of structural reforms to avoid a “new normal” of mediocre economic growth across the region that is being driven in part by lower oil prices. Long-term growth prospects have diminished significantly over the past 10 years, as regional conflicts, the financial crisis and-more recently-lower oil prices have prompted governments to cut once profligate public spending programmes. “The region’s growth prospects are declining faster than in the rest of the world,” the IMF says. Oil exporters in the Middle East and north Africa lost more than $340bn in oil revenue from their budgets last year, the IMF estimates. This amounted to 20pc of their combined GDP. The IMF expects Saudi Arabia’s economy to grow by just 1.2pc this year, down from 3.4pc growth in 2015. Iraq’s
展开▼
