Middle East faces one of sharpest downgrades since global financial crisis, IMF warns

The Middle East’s economic outlook has sharply deteriorated following the outbreak of the Iran war, with the International Monetary Fund warning that the region faces one of its steepest growth downgrades in years and rising risks of further decline if the conflict persists. Presenting the fund's latest Regional Economic Outlook for the Middle East and Central Asia, Jihad Azour, director of the IMF’s regional department , said the scale of the revision reflects the severity of the shock. “This is among the largest six-month downgrades … since the global financial crisis,” Mr Azour said on Thursday, as the fund outlined how earlier economic momentum has been reversed. The report projects growth across the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan region will slow to 1.4 per cent this year, down 2.3 percentage points from previous forecasts. During a discussion around the report, IMF officials warned that the outlook could worsen further as the conflict continues and ...