This page features Flagship Reports and Economic Updates by the MENAAP Chief Economist Office. The Economic Update is produced two times per year, reporting on the recent economic developments and short-term outlook of the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan. These reports highlight a particular theme. The MENAAP Economic Update was formerly known as the MENAAP Economic Monitor, and before that, Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan Quarterly Economic Brief.
Office of the Chief Economist, Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan
Publications
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan Economic Update
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Jobs and Women: Untapped Talent, Unrealized Growth7 October 2025
Jobs and Women: Untapped Talent, Unrealized Growth
Growth prospects in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (MENAAP) region are improving, with forecasts of 2.8% in 2025 and 3.3% in 2026, yet challenges remain due to ongoing conflict, sluggish job ...
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Shifting Gears: The Private Sector as an Engine of Growth in the Middle East and ...23 April 2025
Shifting Gears: The Private Sector as an Engine of Growth in the Middle East and ...
The MENA region grew at 1.9 percent in 2024 and is expected to grow at 2.6 percent in 2025. This is against a backdrop of increased global uncertainty, particularly in trade policy. The region is far from the frontier in ...
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Growth in the Middle East and North Africa16 October 2024
Growth in the Middle East and North Africa
Real GDP growth in MENA is expected at 2.2 percent in 2024, a modest uptick from 1.8 percent in 2023, which nonetheless masks important disparities within the region. The acceleration is driven by the high-income oil ...
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Conflict and Debt in the Middle East and North Africa15 April 2024
Conflict and Debt in the Middle East and North Africa
“The MENA region grew at 1.9 percent in 2023 and is forecasted to grow at 2.7 percent in 2024 amidst a global economy that is in its third consecutive year of deceleration. The tragedy of the conflict in the Middle East ...
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Balancing Act: Jobs and Wages in the Middle East and North Africa When Crises ...
5 October 2023Balancing Act: Jobs and Wages in the Middle East and North Africa When Crises ...
Covid-19. The Russian invasion of Ukraine. Commodity price volatility. The rise of global inflation and interest rates. Currency depreciations among indebted middle-income economies. And now, natural disasters. As a ...
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Altered destinies: The Long-Term Effects of Rising Prices and Food Insecurity in ...6 April 2023
Altered destinies: The Long-Term Effects of Rising Prices and Food Insecurity in ...
High inflation and rising food prices pose a challenge to economies across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where growth is expected to slow in the coming year to 3% after growing 5.8% in 2022. Oil exporters, ...
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A New State of Mind: Greater Transparency and Accountability in the Middle East ...5 October 2022
A New State of Mind: Greater Transparency and Accountability in the Middle East ...
The MENA region is facing important vulnerabilities, which the current crises—first the pandemic, then the war in Ukraine—have exacerbated. Prices of food and energy are higher, hurting the most vulnerable, and rising ...
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Reality Check: Forecasting Growth in the Middle East and North Africa in Times ...April 2022
Reality Check: Forecasting Growth in the Middle East and North Africa in Times ...
This edition of the World Bank MENA Economic Update estimates that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s economies will grow by 5.2% in 2022, the fastest rate since 2016. However, uncertainty reigns with the ...
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Overconfident: How Economic and Health Fault Lines Left the Middle East and ...7 October 2021
Overconfident: How Economic and Health Fault Lines Left the Middle East and ...
This edition of the World Bank MENA Economic Update estimates that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s economies, which contracted by 3.8% in 2020, will grow by 2.8% in 2021. Overall, the output cost of ...
Flagship Reports
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The Economics of Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa: ...26 April 2023
The Economics of Water Scarcity in the Middle East and North Africa: ...
Despite massive infrastructure investments, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continue to face unprecedented water scarcity due to climate change, population growth, and socioeconomic ...
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Building Resilient Migration systems in the Mediterranean Region: Lesson from ...14 June 2022
Building Resilient Migration systems in the Mediterranean Region: Lesson from ...
For thousands of years, migration has been a source of social and economic well-being for people living on different shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Whether through higher earnings for migrants, access to labor for ...
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Unlocking Sustainable Private Sector Growth in the Middle East and North Africa: ...8 June 2022
Unlocking Sustainable Private Sector Growth in the Middle East and North Africa: ...
Economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been weak since the global financial crisis of 2007-09 and the Arab Spring of the early 2010s. Achieving higher and sustainable growth is particularly ...
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Jobs Undone: Reshaping the Role of Governments toward Markets and Workers in the ...16 May 2022
Jobs Undone: Reshaping the Role of Governments toward Markets and Workers in the ...
A decade since the spark of the Arab Spring, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continues to suffer from limited creation of more and better jobs. Youth face idleness and unemployment. For those who find jobs,...
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The Upside of Digital for the Middle East and North Africa : How Digital ...16 March 2022
The Upside of Digital for the Middle East and North Africa : How Digital ...
The argument that digitalization fosters economic activity has been strengthened by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Because digital technologies are general-purpose technologies that are usable across a wide variety of ...