(MENAFN) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the Middle East and Central Asia's losses from lower oil export are expected to reach USD300 billion, The Peninsula Qatar reported.
The IMF said that economies that are particularly dependent on oil exports, including Qatar, Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia, will be affected the hardest by the continuous global decline in oil prices that led oil to lose more than 50 percent of its value and hover around a near six-year lows
The IMF added that nearly every exporting country in the Middle East and Central Asia is expected to run a fiscal deficit this year because of the oil price shock, leading the IMF to downgrade the region's growth prospects by as much as 1 percentage point compared with its October forecasts, to be 3.4 percent for 2015.
These losses are expected to account for 21 percent of the GCC's gross domestic products or USD300 billion, while in non-GCC countries and in Central Asia, the expected losses are USD90 billion and USD35 billion this year, while importers, like Morocco, Lebanon and Mauritania are expected to gain most from falling crude prices, while Lebanon and Egypt are likely to see improved fiscal balances.
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