Economy

Malgré les troubles politiques qui ébranlent le monde arabe depuis début 2011, le Maroc a conclu l’année relativement indemne, sans avoir subi les protestations observées dans de nombreux autres pays de la région, et en affichant une croissance économique positive. Le maintien de la croissance des secteurs non agricoles, les politiques macroéconomiques saines et les réformes politiques en cours ont en effet permis au Maroc d’enregistrer l’an dernier l’un des taux de croissance les plus élevés de la région.

Looking to a bit of belt-tightening in its public spending scheme, the Jordanian government is working to mitigate the effects of recent turmoil in the global financial markets, the Arab Spring uprisings and the eurozone sovereign debt crisis on the local economy.

As 2012 gets underway, Saudi Arabia can look back on 2011 as a year of solid growth, as well as anticipate a further 12 months of expansion and development, building on an already impressive economic platform as the state seeks to guarantee future growth through investments in infrastructure and human resources.

The New Year sees a very different Egypt from the one that welcomed the opening of 2011, being in the process of instituting multi-party democracy, while trying to reshape the national economy. However, many hurdles still have to be overcome to ensure social, economic and political stability.

Emphasising the government’s fiscal prudence, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan presented the 2012 federal budget to the National Assembly in mid-December, noting that although spending is expected to rise, the deficit is projected to fall.

For Dubai, 2011 was a year of consolidation, with solid growth for many key economic sectors, the debt load of some of the emirate’s leading corporations sharply reduced and confidence growing apace, though concerns linger over how renewed economic slowdown elsewhere will impact the emirate.