São Paulo – Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa must invest ever further in short-term job creation. Such is the most pressing need for oil exporting and importing countries alike, the director of the Middle East and North Africa Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Masood Ahmed, has said this Friday (11th). He granted a press conference during the IMF annual meeting at the organization’s headquarters, in Washington, DC. The IMF released its World Economic Outlook report last Wednesday (9th).
According to Ahmed, Arab oil exporting countries in the Gulf should see a decline in economic activity this year as a result of falling demand for oil, the main revenue source for the Gulf countries: Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain. According to the IMF report issued this week, these countries’ GDPs should be up 1.9% this year and 4% in the next.
Ahmed said these countries are faced with two challenges: being more resistant to oscillations in oil demand and price, and investing in job creation to expatriates and locals alike. “They need to provide jobs for the national population. In some countries, aggregate job figures have continued to grow, but many of the private sector jobs are filled by expatriates,” he said.
He also said oil importing countries are threatened with spillover from the political crisis in Syria, and that the region is burdened by political uncertainty. Ahmed noted that the trade volume between these countries is low, and the growth that is seen does not meet the population’s aspirations to employment for the youth and better living conditions. The solution to most issues of oil importing countries and those undergoing transitions (such as Egypt, Tunisia and Libya), said Ahmed, is job creation.
“It is very important to take action in order to move toward what we think is the highest priority in these countries, which is to provide jobs. Employment means hope in sustaining a socio-political transition,” he said. He also stated that countries facing economic issues must cut down their loans and change their spending outlook, using the funds to attract the private sector.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
