Masood Ahmed, Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, IMF touched upon IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook for the Middle East and Central Asia, released November 11, projects growth in the region at an average of about 5½ percent for 2012 and 2013. As stated in the IMF press release Growth for the region’s oil- and gas-exporting countries—Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—is projected to moderate slightly to about 5½ percent in 2012 and 2013 from about 7 percent in 2011, with lower growth in hydrocarbon production. However, public spending and directed credit will continue to ensure robust activity in the non-oil sector.
For the oil- and gas-importing countries—Armenia, Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan—growth will remain firm at 5 percent in 2012, before increasing to 5.8 percent in 2013. Robust remittance inflows from Russia and high commodity prices underpin this outlook, with the Kyrgyz Republic benefiting from higher gold production.
Juha Kähkönen, Deputy Director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department commented on these developments in the region- “The positive outlook provides an opportunity to strengthen policy buffers to prepare for any potential adverse economic conditions, such as a slowdown of world commodity demand or rising food prices.”
http://www.imf.org/external/mmedia/view.aspx?vid=1949092370001
