Shifting Gears: The Private Sector as an Engine of Growth in the Middle East and North Africa

FromJun 03, 2025 To Jun 03, 2025

Online Webinar

The Economic Research Forum (ERF) and the office of the Chief Economist, Middle East and North Africa, the World Bank are organizing this seminar to discuss the World Bank’s latest MENA Economic Update April 2025, “Shifting Gears: The Private Sector as an Engine of Growth in the Middle East and North Africa”

The World Bank’s latest Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Economic Update (Gatti et al., 2025) forecasts that the region will grow at 2.6% in 2025, an uptick from 1.9 percent in 2024. This is against a backdrop of increased global uncertainty, particularly in trade policy. Conflict has dialed back development across the region, and the effects will remain for a long while after, compounding a history of low growth.

Standards of living in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are far from the frontier, largely due to low productivity. The April 2025 issue of the MENA Economic Update, Shifting Gears, sheds light on a critical engine of productivity growth: the private sector. Businesses create jobs, boost livelihoods, and spur innovation. To accelerate the performance of the private sector, governments in the region may need to rethink their roles and firms could do more to better harness untapped talent in the region.

Register here!