Masood Ahmed, director of the International Monetary Fund’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, has said that economies in the region need to accelerate their post-slowdown growth if they are to reduce jobless numbers, Reuters has reported. “Mena (Middle East and North Africa) region growth will be at a rate of 4.2 per cent this year versus 2.3 per cent in 2009 and the growth will be 4.8 per cent next year,” he said. “The growth in these countries must be 6.5 per cent and higher rather than 4.5 per cent or 5 per cent to reduce unemployment,” he added. “Mena’s emerging markets should create 18 million jobs in the next 10 years to cut unemployment.”