Mubasher: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday announced that economic growth across GCC member states may see a slowdown in 2017, weighed down by the agreement to cut oil production as part of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The IMF expected that GCC economies will achieve a 5% growth in 2017, which will be its lowest level since the global financial crisis, recommending that oil-exporting countries should apply plans to reduce the deficits in order to boost their budgets.
"It is the right time for GCC economies to accelerate their diversification outside oil and to promote a greater role for the private sector," said Jihad Azour, director of the Middle East and Central Asia at the IMF.
The decline in crude oil prices caused a huge deficit in the budgets of the oil-exporting countries in the region. Regional deficits increased considerably to 10.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 from 1.1% in 2014, the IMF’s data showed.
"Preparing their economies to the post-oil era is something that is becoming a priority for authorities all over the GCC," Azour concluded, according to an official statement.
