Economic performance witnesses development in Arab states

The Arab Monetary Fund in the United Arab Emirates confirmed that the economic performance of the nine states participating in the database of the Arab bond markets achieved tangible development during the second quarter of the current year and achieved progress in the plans for privatization and restructuring.

A detailed news release by the fund indicated that the nine states participating in the database -- Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia -- are going to witness real development with varied growth rates for 1999, while the rates of inflation and total deficits in regional budgets are to drop.

The report said recently that the total local output in Egypt has developed by a real average of 5.0% during the fiscal year 1998/99, while the inflation rate remained at 4% during 1999.

The remaining surplus of the sources of local finance enabled the fund to pay foreign debt services of 1,411 million pounds within the first nine months from the 1998/99 fiscal year.

The report expected the development of the Saudi local output to 2%, Kuwaiti 3%, Bahrain by 3%, Jordan by 3%, Lebanon by 3.5% Tunis and Morocco by 0.2%.