Wednesday, May 15, 2013
1222 GMT [Zawya Dow Jones]--The Middle East & North Africa region's resource-poor economies are expected to outperform the oil-rich countries in the longer term, says London-based Capital Economics, but reckons it's too early to call an end to the recent period of outperformance by the resource-rich economies. Says while the region's two largest economies: resource-poor Egypt and resource-rich Saudi Arabia appear to have grown at similar rates in 1Q, the headline growth figures belie the fact that the underlying near-term economic drivers remain much stronger in Saudi Arabia. "The Saudi authorities have ample scope for fiscal stimulus, which means that we expect growth to remain broadly stable this year. By contrast, Egypt's ongoing political uncertainty, precarious external position and foreign currency scarcity mean that its growth rate is likely to slow." For 2013, expects GDP growth of 4% in Saudi Arabia, but just 1.5% in Egypt. (nikhil.lohade@dowjones.com; Twitter: @ZDJnews)
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15-05-13 1232GMT
