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The Arab Recession: How the Revolution Turned Six Countries into Economic Basket Cases

(Foreign Policy) T.Y. McCormick - The protests in the Arab world, which were spurred by rising food prices and unemployment, have bequeathed a cruel irony: a worsening of the very same conditions that sparked the Arab Spring. The economies of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, and Tunisia are projected to shrink by a collective 0.5% this year, reversing 4.4% growth in 2010, according to a report published by the Institute of International Finance in May. Jordanian Finance Minister Mohammed Abu Hammour recently estimated that $500 million is "leaving the Arab world" every week as a result of the unrest. But not all the economic news is bad. Before the revolution, governments across the region were playing an "impeding role" in the economy, said Ossama Hassanein, senior managing director of Newbury Ventures. Today, he estimated that the number of entrepreneurs in the Middle East has multiplied by a factor of ten.
2011-07-25 00:00:00
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