Stronger trade integration needed for MENA prosperity

A stronger trade and economic integration among the countries of the Middle East and North Africa is an essential reform that is likely to deliver economic growth on a scale and timetable that would create enough jobs and prosperity for the rapidly growing populations in these countries.

“More trade integration would not only create growth and jobs, but it would also act as a catalyst for reform: it would provide discipline and incentives to help get the reform strategy right,” said IMF First Deputy Managing Director, David Lipton, at a lecture he delivered on Tuesday at the London School of Economics.

MENA is a huge and economically varied region with a population of more than 400 million people and $3 trillion in GDP. That accounts for about 6 percent of the global population, and for 4 percent of global GDP, the IMF executive said noting that “the non-oil exports of the whole region stand at $365 billion, about the same as the exports of Belgium, a country of eleven, not 400 million people.”