The International Monetary Fund announced on Monday that the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries were likely planning to invest some $700 billion in various projects across the GCC region over the next three to four years, in areas such as real estate, infrastructure and oil and gas, in an attempt to boost growth and employment.
The move, said Mohsin Khan, Director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department, added that the investment plan would also aid in narrowing the region's large external surplus, according to Khaleej Times.
"In addition, oil projects will boost production and petroleum refining capacity, and so help promote global oil market stability," Khan stated while speaking at the Dubai International Financial Center on Monday.
"With the growing realization that the increase in oil prices, and hence oil revenues, will endure, many oil-exporting countries have started to increase the pace of spending and are putting in place major programs to upgrade their social and physical infrastructure," he pointed out.
He also pointed out that economic performance in the Middle East and Central Asia region remained strong despite security problems in some countries and recent asset price reversals.
"Growth in the region continues to outpace global growth and should average 6-7 per cent in 2006 and 2007 —similar to the rates of the past three years. Strong external inflows resulting from high oil and non-oil commodity prices, foreign investments, and remittances are fuelling credit growth, and inflation continues to edge up, though it remains moderate in most countries," he said.
