In a speech to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), UN-ESCWA Secretary-General Rola Dashti revealed that the public debt in the Arab region has reached $ 1.5 trillion.
ESCWA's report, "Liquidity Shortages and High Debt: Obstacles to Recovery in the Arab Region", showed that the past decade has witnessed an unprecedented increase in public debt in the Arab region. Even in high-income Arab Gulf states, total public debt has nearly quadrupled, from about $117 billion in 2008 to about $576 billion in 2020.
The figures show that almost half of the Arab region's public debt falls on middle-income countries, with total public debt rising from nearly $250 billion to $658 billion between 2008 and 2020.
According to Arab Monetary Fund estimates, public debt to GDP in Arab borrowing countries rose from about 47.1 percent at the end of 2010 to about 108.8 percent by the end of 2021.
Source (Al-Arab Newspaper London, Edited)
