Middle East economic outlook slightly improves as pandemic lingers

Middle East economic outlook slightly improves as pandemic lingers

Muscat: Middle East Q4 2020, from Oxford Economics and commissioned by chartered accountancy body ICAEW, reports that economic recovery is slowly underway in the Middle East but won't return to pre-crisis level until 2022. GDP forecasts for the Middle East for this year and next stand at -6.8 per cent and +2.9 per cent, compared to an average pace of 2.6% between 2010 and 2019.As a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic takes hold in Europe and other parts of the world, global recovery has stalled. While containment measures for the virus are being re-imposed in many economies, economic recovery for the Middle East has lost momentum, despite a strong bounce back in the third quarter of this year. With infections largely in check, GCC countries have continued to ease out of lockdowns. While positive, Google mobility trends show the pace of return to normality has slowed, particularly in the important workplace category, and tourism traffic has also been subdued.The oil sector remains a drag on overall growth as countries cut production in line with the OPEC+ April deal. Therefore, with both oil and non-oil sectors facing hurdles, the GCC is set for a large GDP contraction of 5.3 per