ESCWA Charts a Positive Path for Arab Economies in 2022

  • Arab Region
  • 10 January 2022
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The "Survey of Economic and Social Developments in the Arab Region 2020-2021", issued by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia "ESCWA", showed that despite the risks that the global economy still faces two years after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic prospects for the Arabic region seems to be positive.

The economic recovery that began in 2021 is expected to continue, with the region’s gross domestic product increasing by 3.7 percent in 2022 and 3.6 percent in 2023. But the pace of recovery will vary between countries depending on the speed of vaccination campaigns, revenues from oil and tourism, the volume of remittances, and developmental aid flows.

ESCWA's expectations depend on two scenarios. The first, a conservative scenario, assumes that the pace of vaccination will continue at its slow pace and that some countries will impose partial closures to prevent the spread of new mutations. In this scenario, the average oil price is $60 per barrel. While the second scenario, which is the most optimistic, assumes that vaccination campaigns will advance steadily and that the demand for oil will rise globally, and that the average price of oil will be $80 per barrel, and may reach the level of $100 per barrel sometimes. In the event that vaccination succeeds in containing the Corona virus, economies will follow the path of recovery by increasing demand for goods and resuming tourism activities.

Source (Emirati Gulf Newspaper, Edited)