World Bank Lowers Economic Growth Forecast for Middle East

The World Bank lowered its forecast for the growth of the economies of the Arab countries in the year 2023.

And the bank's experts attributed this decline in Arab growth rates to the slowdown in the growth indicators of the economies of oil-exporting countries, while raising its estimates of growth expectations for the next year, according to Bloomberg news agency.

The bank estimated the growth of the economies of the Middle East and North Africa region at about 2.2% this year, according to updated forecasts issued yesterday, Tuesday, compared to 3.5% in previous estimates issued last January, which means a decrease of more than a third in the expected growth rate.

However, the bank showed optimism in the coming year, as it raised the expected economic growth rate for the region by about 0.6%, to reach 3.3%, before slowing again to 3% in 2025.

On the contrary, for the global economy, the World Bank raised its forecast for global GDP growth for this year to 2.1% from 1.7% in January and lowered the forecast for 2024 to 2.4% from 2.7%.