The Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) says growth among the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region’s oil-exporting countries has bottomed out in 2017 at 1.7 per cent. It says growth this year is expected to reach 2.8 per cent before rising further to 3.3 per cent in 2019.

According to director of IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, Jihad Azour, the improved overall outlook is due to strengthening activity in the non-oil sector, which has helped mitigate the effects of lower oil production under the terms of the extended Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries + agreement.

The executive also said the IMF expected recovery among oil-importing countries to continue, aided by increasing external demand and, in certain countries, the impact of reforms. The IMF expects growth among this group of countries to register 4.2 per cent in 2017, 4.7 per cent next year and 4.6 per cent in 2019.

However, Azour added that the overall growth in the region is still too low to meaningfully address the long-term unemployment challenge. Major downside risks also remain that prohibit the entire region from fully enjoying the benefits of a growing global economy. These risks include ongoing security concerns, a relatively subdued medium-term outlook for oil prices, and the need for continued fiscal consolidation in many countries.

In its latest advisory, the IMF advised the region’s oil exporters to accelerate structural reforms to achieve economic diversification, and said oil importers should implement further reforms to secure resilience in fostering job creation.

Real GDP growth in Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest economy, is expected to contract by 0.7 per cent this year, before returning to growth - 1.7 per cent in 2018 and 1.9 per cent in 2019.

Azour says Saudi Arabia’s ongoing economic reform has managed to meet certain objectives that were required in order to face the decrease in the oil price and the transformation of the world oil markets. “No doubt due to the reserves that the kingdom has, there was some sort… of execution, and the objective is to have sustainability in its financial management,” Azour says.

He added that strengthening the kingdom’s private sector remains another key objective.

Middle East And North Africa real GDP growth