TY  - BOOK
AU  - Devarajan,Shantayanan
AU  - Devarajan,Shantayanan
AU  - Mottaghi,Lili
TI  - Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief, January 2014 : : Growth Slowdown Heightens the Need for Reforms 
T2  - Middle East and North Africa Quarterly Economic Brief
PY  - 2014///
CY  - Washington, D.C.
PB  - The World Bank
KW  - Arab Spring
KW  - Arab Transition Countries
KW  - Development Economics
KW  - Economic Policy
KW  - Growth
KW  - International Economics and Trade
KW  - Investment
KW  - Macroeconomics and Economic Growth
KW  - Poverty Reduction
KW  - Volatility
N2  - Ongoing regional tensions, together with a challenging (albeit slightly improving) external environment, have hit the economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region hard. Economic growth is slowing, fiscal buffers are depleting, unemployment is rising, and inflation is mounting in seven of the region's most vulnerable economies-- Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen and Libya. Short-term policy actions such as increasing public sector wages and subsidies-aimed at reducing social tensions--exacerbate the situation, which is driven by long-standing structural weaknesses, including labor market rigidities, complicated and opaque regulations, infrastructure deficiencies, regressive and inefficient subsidies, and inadequate social safety nets. While these countries face an unstable political and macroeconomic environment, the growth slowdown after the Arab Spring creates a unique opportunity to address these structural problems to both create fiscal space and restructure the economy towards job creation and inclusive growth
UR  - http://elibrary.worldbank.org/content/book/9781464803949
ER  -