Race between vaccines and virus to shape uneven Middle East recovery - IMF | Reuters

Race between vaccines and virus to shape uneven Middle East recovery - IMF | Reuters

The Middle East will see an uneven economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, an International Monetary Fund official said, as countries move at different speeds to secure vaccines and fiscal policy responses differ across the region.

Oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council countries have secured bilateral agreements with several vaccine providers, but fragile and conflict-afflicted states with limited healthcare capacities rely on the limited coverage of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) COVAX initiative, which could delay broad vaccine availability to the second half of 2022.

“What we are seeing today is still a race between the vaccine and the virus, and this will shape the recovery in 2021,” said Jihad Azour, director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund.

“We will have recovery across the board, but it will be divergent, uneven and uncertain,” he said, adding that accelerating vaccinations could improve growth outlooks by 0.3%-0.4%.