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Oil exporters in the Middle East and North Africa region are expected to increase their international reserve positions by over $100 billion in 2010 as oil prices rebound, the IMF said.
The rebuilding of their international reserve positions would help governments of the region maintain public spending, which has helped mitigate the impact of the global financial turmoil on their economies, the International Monetary Fund said in a report released in Dubai.
"With higher oil prices and the anticipated re-emergence of global demand, oil revenues are expected to increase, allowing oil exporters to rebuild their international reserve positions by over $100 billion in 2010," the Middle East and Central Asia Regional Economic Outlook report said.
Oil exporters - Algeria, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen - have suffered as oil prices dropped to near $30 per barrel around the turn of the year from a life-time high of $147 per barrel in July 2008.
Since then, it has rebounded to around $70 per barrel.
The IMF projected that the economies of all countries of the Middle East and North Africa in addition to Afghanistan and Pakistan are expected to grow 4.0 per cent in 2010.
