Oil prices have dropped from $147 a barrel to between $50 and $60 over the past year, leading to a collapse of export revenues for Middle Eastern and North African oil producers.

Foreign investment, remittances, and tourism receipts will be affected throughout the region. Yet growth – although slowing – remains higher than in many regions, including Latin America and eastern Europe. This year, the oil exporters of the Middle East and North Africa will see their non-oil gross domestic product – a good measure of local economic conditions that directly affect their population – expand at more than 3.5 per cent. Real GDP in the region’s diverse group of oil-importing emerging markets and developing countries should also grow at about the same rate.