LOC10:06
07:06 GMT
WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (KUNA) -- The World Bank Group revised growth for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), setting downward to 2.6 % with short term prospects remaining "cautiously pessimistic."
In its latest issue of the Quarterly Economic Brief for MENA (QEB) released late Thursday, it lowered its expectation of 2.8% growth last October sighting civil wars in multiple countries as well as low price of oil as reasons for its forecast.
"Five years of war in Syria and spillovers to the neighboring countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt) have cost close to an estimated USD 35 billion in output, measured in 2007 prices, equivalent to Syria's GDP in 2007," it said.
And restoring Libya infrastructure will cost an estimate of 200 billion dollars over a decade and the damage to the capital stock in Syria as of mid-2014 is estimated between USD 70-80 billion.
"Continued conflict and violence have reversed years of educational attainments in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya and created inequality in educational opportunities," the report warned and that more than 50% of all school-age children in Syria were prevented from attending school during 2014 - 2015.
While in Yemen, the number of poor people has risen from 12 million prior to war to more than 20 million, a staggering 80% of the population since the beginning of the conflict.
The report indicated that "being the least democratic region in the world, MENA could benefit from transitioning peacefully to democracy."
"If transitions in MENA countries occurred in 2015, the growth rate of per capita GDP would reach 7.78% in 2020 compared to 3.3% in the absence of a transition to democracy," it concluded. (end)
yt.tg