Friday, 12 March 2010Positive’ mid-term outlook seen in Gulf economies
Gulf economies probably will grow at a stronger pace this year than more developed countries, Middle East experts at the International Monetary Fund wrote in the March issue of the fund’s “Finance and Development” magazine.
Non-oil growth of gross domestic product was estimated at 2.8 percent last year, and the recovery in overall growth in 2010 “is expected to be stronger than in advanced economies,” according to the article on the nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council. They include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
“While the GCC’s short-term economic outlook is clouded by the global crisis and by recent developments in Dubai, the region’s medium-term outlook remains broadly positive, supported by rising commodity prices,” said May Khamis, deputy division chief of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia department, and Abdelhak Senhadji, the department’s division chief.
Policy makers in the region face the “immediate priority” of cleaning up bank balance sheets and restructuring non-bank companies. In the longer term, “improving corporate governance and transparency will be paramount in view of heightened lender risk aversion, which has put pressure on GCC conglomerates and government-related entities to do a better job of disclosure.”
