São Paulo – Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will see their economies shrink by 7.6% this year, International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Middle East and Central Asia Department director Jihad Azour (pictured above) said on Tuesday (30) at a virtual economic forum. The news was published on the Saudi newspaper Arab News and other media across the region.
GCC is composed by the Arab countries Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. The projection for the region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) performance announced by Azour revises down April forecasts by nearly 3 percentage points.
Arab News reported that the GCC nations are, with varying degrees, facing steep economic declines as the slowdown in business activity due to the coronavirus pandemic is amplified by a price drop in hydrocarbons, which are their main source of revenue. “The contraction will be across all sectors, oil and non-oil,” Azour said.
Saudi Arabia’s economy — the largest in the Arab world — faces a 6.8% contraction this year, sharper than the 2.3% IMF had forecast in April. Saudi authorities, though, said that they expect the country’s economy to fare better than the IMF forecast, seen as “more pessimistic” than the country’s own projections.
In the same forum, Bahrain’s Central Bank chief Rasheed Mohammed Al-Maraj said his country’s economy is expected to shrink in line with IMF forecasts. The Fund in April had projected Bahrain’s economy to contract by 3.6% in 2020. The IMF official oil-producing countries in other regions are likely to see even larger drops in their GDP.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
