DUBAI: The International Monetary Fund on Sunday urged higher government spending in the Gulf countries in 2011, with recovering crude prices easing the pressure on post-crisis financial stimulus. “Where fiscal space is available, particularly in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)... and signs of either self-sustaining private sector activity or overheating are absent, fiscal policy should remain expansionary,” the IMF said, speaking of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) oil exporters. But it also said in its quarterly regional outlook released on Sunday in Dubai that “beyond 2011, most countries should turn to consolidation as they tackle critical medium-term challenges.” It noted that fiscal balances are expected to improve with the recovery in oil prices and non-oil activities. “For the GCC, the improvement is particularly large, by almost 7 percentage points of GDP between 2009 and 2011,” the fund said. Several GCC countries were able to implement a financial stimulus in the wake of the global financial crisis, expanding their investment spendings, thanks to an “ample fiscal space owing to low debt levels and large buffers built up during the pre-crisis years,” it said. But the IMF said that even countries with ample fiscal space beyond 2011 should consolidate their finances “to ensure sustainable use of oil and natural gas revenues and to pursue intergenerational equity.” It warned that depending on oil revenues keeps fiscal balances in oil exporting countries vulnerable to downside risks, while it recommended enacting fiscal measures to ensure progress in reorienting spending, rationalizing energy subsidies and diversifying revenue sources. The recommendations apply to all oil exporters in the MENA region, and the IMF underlined that GCC countries are spending on general infrastructure and education projects that may complement private sector activity and thereby promote greater economic diversification. As for the impact of energy subsidies, it noted that implicit fuel subsidies relative to GDP are estimated to have amounted in 2008 to seven and eight percent in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates respectively, compared to five percent in Qatar. The IMF also recommended introducing taxes on the non-oil sector to reduce dependence on oil revenues, pointing out that GCC countries are considering a region-wide introduction of a value-added tax regime. The IMF had earlier this month forecast steady economic recovery in the GCC region, with gas-rich Qatar leading the march with 16 percent projected GDP growth this year, and 18.6 percent in 2011, compared to 8.6 percent in 2009. Growth in Saudi Arabia is forecast to reach 3.4 percent in 2010, and 4.5 percent next year, from a modest 0.6 percent in 2009. It is expected to register the highest inflation in the GCC at 5.5 percent in 2010. UAE's economy should rebound by 2.4 percent this year, and expand by 3.2 percent in 2011, after contracting by 2.5 percent last year. – Agence France
