Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief, January 2014 : Growth Slowdown Heightens the Need for Reforms

Ongoing regional tensions, together with a challenging (albeit slightly improving) external environment, have hit the economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region hard. Economic growth is slowing, fiscal buffers are depleting, unemployment is rising, and inflation is mounting in seven...

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Main Authors:	Devarajan, Shantayanan, Mottaghi, Lili
Format:	Publication
Language:	en_US
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2014
Subjects:	Arab Spring Arab transition countries development economics economic policy global growth growth investment poverty volatility
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18818

id	okr-10986-18818
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-188182021-04-23T14:03:49Z Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief, January 2014 : Growth Slowdown Heightens the Need for Reforms Devarajan, Shantayanan Mottaghi, Lili Arab Spring Arab transition countries development economics economic policy global growth growth investment poverty volatility Ongoing regional tensions, together with a challenging (albeit slightly improving) external environment, have hit the economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region hard. Economic growth is slowing, fiscal buffers are depleting, unemployment is rising, and inflation is mounting in seven of the region’s most vulnerable economies-- Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen and Libya. Short-term policy actions such as increasing public sector wages and subsidies—aimed at reducing social tensions--exacerbate the situation, which is driven by long-standing structural weaknesses, including labor market rigidities, complicated and opaque regulations, infrastructure deficiencies, regressive and inefficient subsidies, and inadequate social safety nets. While these countries face an unstable political and macroeconomic environment, the growth slowdown after the Arab Spring creates a unique opportunity to address these structural problems to both create fiscal space and restructure the economy towards job creation and inclusive growth. 2014-06-30T16:04:23Z 2014-06-30T16:04:23Z 2014-01 978-1-4648-0394-9 10.1596/978-1-4648-0394-9 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18818 en_US MENA Quarterly Economic Brief; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo Washington, DC: World Bank Publications & Research :: Publication Middle East and North Africa North Africa Middle East
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	Arab Spring Arab transition countries development economics economic policy global growth growth investment poverty volatility
spellingShingle	Arab Spring Arab transition countries development economics economic policy global growth growth investment poverty volatility Devarajan, Shantayanan Mottaghi, Lili Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief, January 2014 : Growth Slowdown Heightens the Need for Reforms
geographic_facet	Middle East and North Africa North Africa Middle East
relation	MENA Quarterly Economic Brief;
description	Ongoing regional tensions, together with a challenging (albeit slightly improving) external environment, have hit the economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region hard. Economic growth is slowing, fiscal buffers are depleting, unemployment is rising, and inflation is mounting in seven of the region’s most vulnerable economies-- Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen and Libya. Short-term policy actions such as increasing public sector wages and subsidies—aimed at reducing social tensions--exacerbate the situation, which is driven by long-standing structural weaknesses, including labor market rigidities, complicated and opaque regulations, infrastructure deficiencies, regressive and inefficient subsidies, and inadequate social safety nets. While these countries face an unstable political and macroeconomic environment, the growth slowdown after the Arab Spring creates a unique opportunity to address these structural problems to both create fiscal space and restructure the economy towards job creation and inclusive growth.
format	Publications & Research :: Publication
author	Devarajan, Shantayanan Mottaghi, Lili
author_facet	Devarajan, Shantayanan Mottaghi, Lili
author_sort	Devarajan, Shantayanan
title	Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief, January 2014 : Growth Slowdown Heightens the Need for Reforms
title_short	Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief, January 2014 : Growth Slowdown Heightens the Need for Reforms
title_full	Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief, January 2014 : Growth Slowdown Heightens the Need for Reforms
title_fullStr	Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief, January 2014 : Growth Slowdown Heightens the Need for Reforms
title_full_unstemmed	Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief, January 2014 : Growth Slowdown Heightens the Need for Reforms
title_sort	middle east and north africa quarterly economic brief, january 2014 : growth slowdown heightens the need for reforms
publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate	2014
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18818
_version_	1764442819072622592

Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief, January 2014 : Growth Slowdown Heightens the Need for Reforms

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