IMF: Mideast Remains Resilient Despite Risks

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00:00Well, despite the shocks and the uncertainties of 2025, performance in GCC economies was

00:07better than expected, mainly driven by the performance of the non-oil sector in 2025,

00:14following a couple of very good years that reflected the diversification.

00:19In addition to that, the increase in oil supply, about almost two million barrels a day, helped

00:25the GCC countries also to have a strong performance on the oil sector.

00:30Good progress on growth. Inflation is still under control, around 2 percent.

00:35We have some narrowing in the current account situation.

00:39But broadly speaking, the economy is doing well and investments are in the right direction.

00:45But that means, you know, the non-oil story in the region, whether we talk about Saudi Arabia or the UAE, actually,

00:50has been quite resilient. It's been quite good. But we are seeing oil prices.

00:55Brent is edging closer to $60 a barrel. Now, that's below the break-even, fiscal break-even

01:01price for a lot of the countries in the region. Does that not cause any concern over the medium term at all?

01:07Well, the situation changes between countries who have buffers and those who have less buffers.

01:12But currently, when we look at the situation, the fiscal is relatively in a consolidation mode.

01:18And this is a direction that we have seen in the last couple of years. And we expect it to continue.

01:27In addition to that, the capacity of increasing the supply on oil help countries also increase their revenues,

01:34even if the oil price went down.