JIHAD Azour, Director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department Growth, argues that structural reforms are necessary to boost the region’s growth prospects.

Azour emphasized the necessity of reforms at IMF/World Bank annual meetings, citing slowing regional economic growth to 2% this year and an acceleration to 3.4% in 2024.

The Regional Economic Outlook predicts robust growth in Central Asia and the Caucasus at 4.6% this year, down from 4.8% in 2022.
Azour highlighted that IMF research indicates that implementing governance, external sector, and regulatory reforms could significantly boost output by nearly 10% over five years.

He emphasized that promoting inclusive growth necessitates substantial reforms to bridge the gap between the past developed model and the necessary future model.

“With the annual meetings taking place in the Arab world after two decades, the time is ripe to rethink the region’s development mode,”Azour said.