Outlook for sovereign ratings in the Levant and North Africa region is broadly stable, reflecting the improved global growth dynamics, ongoing structural reforms, and winding-down of regional conflicts, said Moody’s in a new report. • Moody's also forecasts GDP growth to pick up in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon in 2018 to 2.9 per cent , 2.5 per cent , 2.8 per cent, respectively. However, Moody’s expects a slight consolidation to 10 per cent in 2018 and 8.5 per cent in 2019. • In Tunisia, a persistent lack of spending control underpins our 6.5 per cent of GDP fiscal deficit forecast for 2017. Taking into account debt amortizations, we expect gross borrowing requirements of 13-15 per cent of GDP over the next three years.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 17, 2018 06:00 UTC