It also shows that the Arab region is more dependent on food imports. Table 1 also shows that, compared to other developing regions, the Arab world is more dependent on remittances (almost 7 per cent of GDP), more dependent on international tourism (14 per cent of GDP) more dependent of fuel exports (56 per cent of GDP). Unemploy-ment, total (% of total labor force) Manu-factures exports (% of merchandise exports) Inter-national tourism, receipts (% of total exports) Table 1: Main characteristics of the region (2000-07) A huge concern is that amongst the young (age 15 – 24) unemployment exceeds 40 per cent. The unemployment rate in the region is around 12 per cent as can be seen from Table 1 - amongst the highest in the world. The reality, however, is that about 40-50 per cent of people live on less than two dollars a day. The general perception is that the Arab region is wealthy. The Arab region, consisting of Algeria, Bahrain, the Comoros, Egypt, Djibouti, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen, is a diverse group of countries. I will first give a short overview of the region, and then ask what impact the global economic crisis is having on financial markets, trade and tourism, remittances and FDI. The region is also facing significant demographic pressures and lacks effective regional integration and well-functioning social safety nets. It is a diverse region containing both very rich and very poor countries, with a very high dependency on international markets. In this article I argue that these perceptions may obscure the fact that the Arab region may be one of the worst affected regions worldwide. For some this might be surprising, given perceptions that either the region is wealthy due to its oil riches, or that countries have plenty of foreign exchange reserves to tide them over, or that the region’s banking system is not as exposed to adverse changes in the global financial system. One region which may be amongst the worst affected is the Arab region. Whilst having a global impact, the current financial and economic crisis is clearly affecting certain regions more severely than others.
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