The International Monetary Fund said shockwaves from the Israel-Hamas war could long reverberate through Middle Eastern economies and have already contributed to a $30 billion rise in their financing needs this year.
Total funding requirements over 2024 now amount to $186 billion for emerging market and middle-income economies in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the IMF, up from $156 billion in 2023. Relative to the fund’s projections in October, that’s an increase equal to about 6 percentage points of their fiscal revenues, which it said is mostly attributable to Egypt and Tunisia.
The burden is growing as a result of “the deterioration in the current-account situation” and reflects spillovers from the war in Gaza, according to Jihad Azour, the IMF director for the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. “It’s more that impact than anything else,” he said in interview Wednesday.
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