The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected the real gross domestic product (GDP) of the Middle East and Central Asia to grow by 4.6% in 2022, according to the IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook report for April 2022.

Moreover, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s GDP growth is projected to ease to 5% in 2022 from 5.8% in 2021, which still marks an “upward revision” of 0.9 percentage points (pp) from October 2021, the report highlighted.

This highlights an improvement in the outlook for oil exporters as well as in growth for Egypt during the first half (H1) of fiscal year (FY) 2021/2022.

Accordingly, Egypt’s GDP growth is likely to rise to 5.9% in FY 2021/2022, compared to 3.3% in FY 2020/2021.

The North African country’s real GDP for FY 2022/2023 is expected to grow 5%, the report added.

As per the GDP growth for the GCC countries, the IMF forecast it would accelerate to 6.4% in 2022 from 2.7% in 2021, representing a 2.2 pp upgrade from October.

Inflation in the GCC countries is projected to record 3.1% in 2022, compared to 2.2% in 2021, the report showed.

Regarding the world outlook, food prices are forecast to rise by around 14% in 2022 and by 5.7% in 2023.

Copyright © 2022 Arab Finance Brokerage Company All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).