The prospects of strikes on Syria and turbulence in Libya that drove up global oil prices have once again focused attention on what the IMF calls the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, or MENAP. In the years after the Arab Spring, fundamental economic problems remain, the IMF said in a recent report. For oil-exporting economies, for example, GDP growth from oil has declined sharply, as Table 1 shows. Table 2 shows which country has exported how much in the recent past - there has been a great deal of political volatility, especially regarding Iran's and Libya's output. Current account balances have taken a hit, as Table 3 shows. Meanwhile, for several oil exporters, the prices have to be as high as possible in order to break even fiscally, as Table 4 shows.
Meanwhile, much of the non-oil-exporting MENAP continues to struggle with growth, as Table 5 reveals. And the unemployment problem that helped spark the Arab Spring has not gone away either, according to Table 6. Table 7 shows which countries are having trouble controlling expenditure - which has helped raise deficits and debt, as Table 8 demonstrates. (Click here for tables)
