"But that recovery is unlikely to be strong enough to get the MENA region's output back to pre-pandemic levels," Ferid Belhaj, vice-president for the region, wrote in the report. Oil-importing countries in the region could see debt levels reach 92 percent. The high debt levels are due to Covid-19 having an acute impact on countries that have already faced economic hardship, such as Lebanon. However, the World Bank noted that will largely be "dependent on an equitable rollout of vaccines". Yet the vaccine rollout in the Middle East has been beset with unequal access, experts told MEE last month.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 02, 2021 21:00 UTC