BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 26. The GDP growth for Middle East and Central Asia for 2022 is expected at 4.8 percent, Trend reports via the latest World Economic Outlook report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
According to the report, the expected GDP growth is 1 percentage point lower compared to 5.8 percent growth in 2021. Moreover, 2023 projections are cut further - 3.5 percent.
“The outlooks for countries in the Middle East and Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa remain on average unchanged or positive, reflecting the effects of elevated fossil fuel and metal prices for some commodity-exporting countries,” the report said.
Meanwhile, according to the IMF’s forecast, global economic growth will slow down from 6.1 percent in 2021 to 3.2 percent in 2022. This is 0.4 percentage point lower than estimated in the April 2022 outlook, while “the risks to the outlook are overwhelmingly tilted to the downside”.
“The risks to the outlook are overwhelmingly tilted to the downside. The war in Ukraine could lead to a sudden stop of European gas imports from Russia; inflation could be harder to bring down than anticipated either if labor markets are tighter than expected or inflation expectations unanchor; tighter global financial conditions could induce debt distress in emerging market and developing economies; renewed COVID-19 outbreaks and lockdowns as well as a further escalation of the property sector crisis might further suppress Chinese growth; and geopolitical fragmentation could impede global trade and cooperation,” the outlook noted.
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