ABSTRACT
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has only 5 percent of the world's population and 3 percent of the world's GDP. However, the influence of its 22 countries far outweigh these numbers because of its important geopolitical location, its wealth of energy resources, and the fact that it has the fastest-growing (and youngest) population in the world. 1 Unfortunately, MENA has also been the slowest-growing region of the emerging world over the last decade. In 2011, GDP within MENA grew at only 3.9 percent, compared to 6.5 percent for emerging economies in general. Inefficient financial systems have played an important role in this regional failure to match the overall pace of emerging market growth.
