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Growth, Investment, and Savings in the Arab Economies

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  • Amer Bisat

Abstract

Sustaining a high rate of economic growth is the major policy issue facing the Arab economies. A detailed analysis of growth, investment, and savings for the period 1971-96, including through a growth accounting exercise, shows that increasing long-run growth requires improvements in both investment and domestic savings. In the past, the Arab region’s growth was overly reliant on volatile external sources of funding, and total factor productivity growth was too low. The paper discusses the policy priorities to overcome the legacy of poor growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Amer Bisat, 1997. "Growth, Investment, and Savings in the Arab Economies," IMF Working Papers 1997/085, International Monetary Fund.
    • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:1997/085
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    Cited by:

    1. Acikgoz, Senay & Ben Ali, Mohamed Sami, 2019. "Where does economic growth in the Middle Eastern and North African countries come from?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 172-183.
    2. Brach, Juliane, 2008. "Constraints to Economic Development and Growth in the Middle East and North Africa," GIGA Working Papers 85, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    3. Ha, Nguyen Thi Thu & Hoa, Lam Ba, 2018. "On the Causality Relationship between Demographic Changes, Economic Growth and Domestic Savings in Vietnam," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 52(2), pages 27-38.
    4. Sadik, Ali T. & Bolbol, Ali A., 2001. "Capital Flows, FDI, and Technology Spillovers: Evidence from Arab Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 2111-2125, December.
    5. Malik, Mushtaq Ahmad & Masood, Dr. Tariq, 2018. "Economic Growth, Productivity and Convergence of the Middle East and North African Countries," MPRA Paper 87882, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 16 Jul 2018.
    6. Samir Makdisi,Zeki Fattah and Imed Limam, "undated". "Determinants of Growth in the Mena Countries," API-Working Paper Series 0301, Arab Planning Institute - Kuwait, Information Center.
    7. Auty, Richard M., 2001. "The political state and the management of mineral rents in capital-surplus economies: Botswana and Saudi Arabia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 77-86, June.
    8. Brach Juliane, 2010. "Technology, Political Economy, and Economic Development in the Middle East and North Africa," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 5(3), pages 1-23, February.
    9. Abu-Qarn, Aamer & Abu-Bader, Suleiman, 2005. "A Versus K Revisited: Evidence from Selected MENA Countries," MPRA Paper 1114, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Abu-Qarn, Aamer S. & Abu-Bader, Suleiman, 2007. "Sources of Growth Revisited: Evidence from Selected MENA Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 752-771, May.
    11. Mohamad Ahmad Abou Hamia, 2020. "Are developing countries accumulating sufficient total factor productivity to sustain their economic growth and job creation? Empirical evidence from the Middle East and North Africa region," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 1102-1127, August.
    12. Xavier Sala-i-Martín & Elsa V. Artadi, 2003. "Economic growth and investment in the Arab world," Economics Working Papers 683, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

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