IMF’s chief leads call at Dubai forum for MENA economies to build resilience

IMF’s chief leads call at Dubai forum for MENA economies to build resilience

As the global growth outlook remains weak in 2023 and tackling inflation is still as a top priority for many economies, Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, has called for countries to use fiscal policies effectively to build resilience.

The IMF chief was a keynote speaker at the seventh annual Arab Fiscal Forum, which took place at the World Government Summit (WGS) in Dubai. The international summit will be held from 13th to 15th February, under the slogan “Shaping Future Governments”.

“2023 remains a difficult year, but it may be also a turning point. We may see growth finally going up and inflation going down, after appearing when it was the exact opposite—growth went down and inflation went up. After expanding by 3.4% last year, we see global growth slowing to 2.9% in 2023 and rebounding slightly to 3.1% in 2024,” she said.

According the IMF outlook, growth is expected to drop in the MENA economies from 5.4% in 2022 to 3.2% this year before ticking up to 3.5% in 2024.

Georgieva highlighted three principles for countries using fiscal policies to build resilience, of which creating a robust framework to conduct fiscal policy and manage fiscal risks was the first.

“Many