The International Monetary Fund expected the global economy to grow by 6 percent by the end of this year, and by 4.9 percent next year, while it lowered its expectations for emerging markets, developing economies and poor countries, especially Asian, while the expectations of advanced economies and rich countries were revised to increase.
In its expectations for the Middle East region, the Fund expressed in its World Economic Prospects report, optimism due to strong activity in some countries such as Saudi Arabia and Morocco, and expectations were revised upwards. However, the GDP forecast was lowered from last April’s forecast due to the decline in oil production, according to the OPEC agreement, and the growth forecast for the group of low-income developing countries decreased by 0.4 percent. According to the fund, these countries need $200 billion to spend on anti-epidemic plans and an additional $250 billion to restore pre-pandemic conditions.
The Fund indicated that the slow deployment of vaccines hinders the progress of low-income countries, especially with the possibility of the emergence of highly contagious "Corona" virus variants that lead to new restrictions on movement and a reduction in economic activity.
The Fund warned of two scenarios, both of which are bad: the first, in which emerging countries are exposed to a new wave of virus mutants, as for the second scenario, it indicates that developed countries implement stimulus policies in the face of rising inflation, and thus growth rates decline to less than 0.75 percent for the current year and 1.5 percent for the next.
Source (Al-Sharq al-Awsat Newspaper, Edited)
