MARRAKESH: IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned Tuesday that “public dissatisfaction is bubbling up” in the Middle East and North Africa, calling for reforms that “respond faster to the expectations and sometimes to the frustration of the people”. Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani spoke of “social pressure, expectations, aspirations and pressures from the population”, calling for emergency programmes. To benefit from IMF loans, countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan have had to reduce their budget deficits, resulting in cost of living rises for their citizens. An austerity budget in Tunisia, along with increases in value-added taxes, sent demonstrators out onto the streets in early January. As a region, the Middle East and North Africa has one of the lowest employment rates in the world, partly because of low women’s participation in the workforce, according to a recent IMF report.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 30, 2018 14:48 UTC