Meeting early this month, Gulf finance ministers insisted their economies could cope comfortably with the looming global slump. During the world's last economic crisis, their optimism proved mistaken - but this time, they are on firmer ground.
Big programmes of government spending, launched for political as well as economic reasons, are likely to support growth. There is less room for asset price bubbles to burst than there was in the last crisis three years ago. And in some ways, financial systems are stronger.
“Countries in the region were caught off guard” by the 2008-2009 global crisis, said Fabio Scacciavillani, chief economist at Oman Investment Fund. “This time they're better prepared - crisis management capabilities have improved.”
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