This page features Flagship Reports and Economic Updates by the MENA Chief Economist Office. The Economic Update is produced two times per year, reporting on the recent economic developments and short-term outlook of the Middle East and North Africa region. These reports highlight a particular theme. The MENA Economic Update was formerly known as the MENA Economic Monitor, and before that, the Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief.
Office of the Chief Economist, Middle East and North Africa
Publications
Middle East and North Africa Economic Update
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16 October 2024
Real GDP growth in MENA is expected at 2.2 percent in 2024, a modest uptick from 1.8 percent in 2023, which nonetheless masks important disparities within the region. The acceleration is driven by the high-income oil ...
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15 April 2024
¡°The MENA region grew at 1.9 percent in 2023 and is forecasted to grow at 2.7 percent in 2024 amidst a global economy that is in its third consecutive year of deceleration. The tragedy of the conflict in the Middle East ...
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5 October 2023Covid-19. The Russian invasion of Ukraine. Commodity price volatility. The rise of global inflation and interest rates. Currency depreciations among indebted middle-income economies. And now, natural disasters. As a ...
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6 April 2023
High inflation and rising food prices pose a challenge to economies across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where growth is expected to slow in the coming year to 3% after growing 5.8% in 2022. Oil exporters, ...
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5 October 2022
A New State of Mind: Greater Transparency and Accountability in the Middle East ...
The MENA region is facing important vulnerabilities, which the current crises¡ªfirst the pandemic, then the war in Ukraine¡ªhave exacerbated. Prices of food and energy are higher, hurting the most vulnerable, and rising ...
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April 2022
Reality Check: Forecasting Growth in the Middle East and North Africa in Times ...
This edition of the World Bank MENA Economic Update estimates that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region¡¯s economies will grow by 5.2% in 2022, the fastest rate since 2016. However, uncertainty reigns with the ...
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7 October 2021
Overconfident: How Economic and Health Fault Lines Left the Middle East and ...
This edition of the World Bank MENA Economic Update estimates that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region¡¯s economies, which contracted by 3.8% in 2020, will grow by 2.8% in 2021. Overall, the output cost of ...
Flagship Reports
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26 April 2023
Despite massive infrastructure investments, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continue to face unprecedented water scarcity due to climate change, population growth, and socioeconomic ...
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14 June 2022
For thousands of years, migration has been a source of social and economic well-being for people living on different shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Whether through higher earnings for migrants, access to labor for ...
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![Unlocking-Sustainable-Growth-In-the-MENA-Sector.JPG]( "Unlocking-Sustainable-Growth-In-the-MENA-Sector.JPG")
8 June 2022Economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been weak since the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and the Arab Spring of the early 2010s. Achieving higher and sustainable growth is particularly ...
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16 May 2022
A decade since the spark of the Arab Spring, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continues to suffer from limited creation of more and better jobs. Youth face idleness and unemployment. For those who find jobs,...
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16 March 2022
The argument that digitalization fosters economic activity has been strengthened by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Because digital technologies are general-purpose technologies that are usable across a wide variety of ...
