IMF’s Azour hails Qatar for rapid vaccine rollout
INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) Middle East and Central Asia Department Director Jihad Azour on Wednesday hailed GCC countries, particularly Qatar and the AE, for the rapid vaccine rollout to stop the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
Azour made his comments during a virtual fireside discussion on the post-COVID-19 economic outlook for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region organised by The Brookings Doha Center.
Azour said the economies of ‘early inoculating’ countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region will bounce back to pre-pandemic levels much earlier than others.
With rapid vaccination campaigns underway particularly in the GCC countries, the IMF earlier predicted that GDP growth would rise to 4 percent this year, an upgrade of 0.9 percent from the last projection.
Azour, however, said that countries across the MENA region are witnessing a divergence in vaccine deployment and a number of these countries will not be able to roll out vaccines before 202 .
Regional cooperation within countries across the MENA is required to navigate the ongoing crisis of COVID-19 pandemic and address its severe impacts, Azour said.
Azour said the new developments in the pandemic require accelerating vaccination efforts, setting new policies and counting takeaways from the ongoing crisis.
As vaccination campaigns ramp up, he said, the region’s recovery has started but is likely to be gradual and uneven. The trajectory of the recovery will differ from country to country, shaped by factors such as vaccine availability, dependence on tourism and contact-intensive sectors, as well as the efficacy of policy decisions, he said.
“ncertainty, the significant transformation of the global economy, and the risk of in ation hikes that could be re ected in global interest rates are the key features of the current phase. Countries with the financial space have the ability to navigate the ongoing challenges with minimal loss, while countries that do not have this space need to rearrange their spending priorities. This action will make the public spending in these countries more feasible, especially with regard to these vulnerabilities,” Azour said.
Azour revealed that the IMF extended financing with a total of 17 billion in 2020 to the MENA region’s countries to address COVID-19 and its repercussions, 65 percent higher than the total the IMF provided to the region in 2019.
He said that this is a record level of IMF financial support.
MENA region needs significant investments to accelerate its growth and recovery process, he said adding that governments should play a key role in creating the environment for the private sector, and embrace other foreign and local partners.
In its latest Regional Economic
Outlook for the Middle East and Central Asia, the IMF argues that in 2021 MENA countries will have to implement policies to protect public health and foster a green and inclusive recovery, while also promoting debt sustainability and financial resilience.
The IMF underscores that it will be necessary for countries to work together at the regional and international levels in order to successfully pursue these policy aims and “build forward better.”
In a webinar held last month, Azour said that early vaccine rollout and the improvement in the relationship between GCC countries will help Qatar economy recover fast.
“This recovery is moving on a diverging path with the vaccine rollout and the policy response playing an important role in the quality and the depth of the recovery,” Azour said. In its latest Regional Economic Outlook pdate report released Sunday, the IMF said it expects early inoculators’ GDP to reach 2019 levels in 2022.
By contrast, slow and late inoculators will happen recover sometime between 2022 and 202 , it said.
Many countries in the region, especially the wealthy GCC countries, have launched vast vaccination campaigns and are administrating some of the fastest per capita deliveries in the world.
Countries across the MENA region are witnessing a divergence in vaccine deployment. Regional cooperation within countries across the MENA is required to navigate the ongoing crisis of COVID-19 pandemic and address its severe impacts
IMF M-E Director Jihad Azour