Oil exporters yet to recover from oil shock: IMF's Christine Lagarde

Among oil importers in the Middle East region, growth had picked up, but it was still below the level before the global financial crisis

Oil exporters have not fully recovered from the dramatic oil price shock of 2014, the head of the IMF said on Saturday, and she cautioned against spending money on "white elephant projects".

"With revenues down, fiscal deficits are only slowly declining, despite significant reforms on both the spending and revenue sides, including the introduction of VAT and excise taxes," Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, told a conference in Dubai.

"This has led to a sharp increase in public debt, from 13 per cent of GDP in 2013 to 33 per cent in 2018." Lagarde said the uncertainty