ABSTRACT
Despite windfall profits for the MENA’s oil-producing countries in recent years, the Middle East and North Africa region, as a whole, faces a wide variety of economic challenges. On the global level the region lags behind, in both its share of world exports and its share of global gross domestic product (GDP). Only the sub-Saharan African region has lower economic growth than the MENA. Indeed, Pamuk (2006: 810) notes that the ‘gap between the Middle East and high income regions of the world is roughly the same today as it was in 1913’. Furthermore, despite rising oil prices, the region has not kept pace with growth posted by other less developed regions, including Latin America. To be fair, the region did post impressive overall growth rates between 2001 and 2006. However, much of this growth was the result of unusually high oil prices and has had little impact beyond the Gulf oil-producing states.
