© Archyde.com. The logo of the International Monetary Fund outside its headquarters in Washington in this photo from Archyde.com archive.
NEW YORK (Archyde.com) – The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its forecast for Saudi gross domestic product growth by 1.1 percentage points to 2.6 percent in 2023, and predicted the kingdom would grow 3.4 percent in 2024.
The Fund’s latest global economic forecasts indicated that the overall growth of the economies of the Middle East and Central Asia region will slow this year to 3.2 percent, which is 0.4 percentage points lower than its estimate in October, attributing partly to the effects of the war in Europe.
The economic advisor and director of the fund’s research department, Pierre-Olivier Gorincha, said that the review for the region mainly reflects “the reductions related to both Saudi Arabia, which is due, among other things, to the impact of the war in Ukraine and its repercussions on commodity prices.”
He added that for Saudi Arabia, the decline in production within the framework of the OPEC + agreement also has an impact.
“The situation is very difficult for oil importers in the region, many of whom are heavily indebted, and therefore food prices and energy prices, which are still high, constitute a great burden,” said Petya Koeva Brooks, Deputy Director of the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund. “The cost of living crisis is still present.” And influential in that region, so there is also a risk of social unrest.”
(Prepared by Mahmoud Salama for the Arabic Bulletin)
