Economy

While rising domestic demand in Malaysia helped reassure investors after last summer’s regional downturn, concerns remain that the country is displaying an over-reliance on high domestic consumption levels to prop up growth.

While growth in Jordan picked up pace in 2013, the external environment continues to weigh on the economy and could slow recovery in 2014.

Lawmakers in Mongolia have approved a budget for 2014 that emphasises investment in the economy and seeks to build the infrastructure needed to sustain a commodities boom and maximise growth. While this likely means higher debt levels in the short run, the expectation is that earnings will improve in the medium-to-long term.

As Nigeria looks to broaden and stabilise its source of revenues, the government is taking steps to streamline a complex, multi-layered system of taxation that has historically resulted in wide-spread evasion.

The government in Oman has been urged to cast its taxation net wider to fund the state’s economic and social welfare programmes, with the need for additional revenue flows likely to become more pressing if global oil prices ease further as some analysts have predicted.

Strong fundamentals underpinned by the hydrocarbons industry and increasing private sector activity point to sustained expansion for Saudi Arabia in 2014, but the economy is showing signs of slowing as the impact of the government’s stimulus package tapers off.