Regional Economic Outlook, April 2021, Middle East and Central Asia

Regional Economic Outlook, April 11, 2021

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Regional Economic Outlook, April 2021, Middle East and Central Asia

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Bibliographic details

• Published: April 11, 2021
• Series: Regional Economic Outlook
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513576152.086

Pandemic context and overall outlook

• A year into the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, "the race between vaccine and virus entered a new phase in the Middle East and Central Asia."
• The path to recovery in 2021 is expected to be "long and divergent."
• The outlook will vary significantly across countries depending on:
  • "the pandemic’s path"
  • "vaccine rollouts"
  • "underlying fragilities"
  • "exposure to tourism and contact-intensive sectors"
  • "policy space and actions"

Policy priorities and recommendations

• 2021 should be "the year of policies that continue saving lives and livelihoods and promote recovery, while balancing the need for debt sustainability and financial resilience."
• Policymakers should also pursue transformational challenges to "build forward better and accelerate the creation of more inclusive, resilient, sustainable, and green economies."
• "Regional and international cooperation will be key complements to strong domestic policies."

Key thematic areas covered

• Commodities
• COVID-19
• Crisis management
• Crisis recovery and resolution planning
• Emerging and frontier financial markets
• Financial crisis
• Financial markets
• Government debt planning
• Government expenditures and health
• Health
• Health care spending
• Oil
• Oil prices
• Prices
• Public expenditures and health
• Public financial management (PFM)

Keywords and geographic focus

• Central Asia and the Caucasus
• COVID-19
• Emerging and frontier financial markets
• financial crisis
• financing constraint
• financing risk
• Global
• Government debt planning
• IMF staff calculation
• lockdown
• Middle East
• Middle East and Central Asia
• net bank financing
• North Africa
• Oil
• Oil prices
• pandemic
• policy space constraint
• public health
• recovery
• social distancing

References

• https://www.imf.org/en/publications/reo
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• Commodities
• COVID-19
• Crisis management
• Crisis recovery and resolution planning
• Emerging and frontier financial markets
• Financial crisis
• Financial markets
• Government debt planning
• Government expenditures and health
• Health
• Health care spending
• Oil
• Oil prices
• Prices
• Public expenditures and health
• Public financial management (PFM)
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