Arab economies grew by 3.5% in 2021. The higher growth in 2022 is attributed to an improvement in global demand levels and the growth of the oil and gas sectors. Aid by Arab governments to support economic recovery is another reason for the growth, the Fund said.

The global economic stagnation is expected to impact the GCC growth due to the decline in industrial and economic activities even as the region is benefiting from high oil prices

Persistently high food inflation will continue to erode households spending power, reducing discretionary spending, and contributing to the stagnation of global GDP. At the same time, persistently high food inflation will reduce and delay the fall in headline inflation, the Qatar National Bank report said.

Rise in prices has sharply accelerated since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, leading central banks to tighten their key rates sharply.

The global inflation wave -- affecting the US, EU and China and spreading to the Gulf countries -- is forcing common people to look for solutions away from the govt actions.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Southeast Asian countries have lagged the performance of advanced economies due to initially low vaccination rates, supply chain constraints and less accommodative monetary and fiscal policies, the weekly report by Qatar National Bank points out.

The Asian region faces a "stagflationary" outlook with economic growth being lower than previously expected and inflation being higher, a senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said on Tuesday (Apr 26). "Monetary tightening will be needed in most countries, with the speed of tightening depending on domestic inflation developments and...