Justin Lin, the World Bank`s chief economist, said that research by the development lender`s economists showed that economic output in the Middle East and North Africa, was paying a heavy price for the recent wave of anti-regime upheaval.
In its January economic forecasts, the World Bank projected that the region, recovering from the 2009 global downturn, would see gross domestic product (GDP) growth rise from a 3.3 percent rate in 2010 to a 4.3 percent pace in 2011.
"Our estimates show that the impact on the countries, like Egypt and Tunisia, can be a drop of about three percentage point reduction" in their GDP growth, Lin told reporters in a briefing on a new bank report on conflict and development.
"For the region, the Middle East and North African countries, the impact can be about 2.4 percentage point," he said.
(Uu.E012/H-AK)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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