Riyadh (AFP) – Director General of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, confirmed before an investment forum in Riyadh on Wednesday that the war that has been ongoing for 19 days between Israel and Hamas has begun to negatively affect the economies of neighboring countries in the region.
Published on: 10/25/2023 – 10:11 Last updated: 10/25/2023 – 10:09
3 minutes
“If you look at the neighboring countries – Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan – the impact is already clear,” Georgieva told the Future Investment Initiative held in the Saudi capital.
On October 7, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated Israel from Gaza in an unprecedented attack since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, resulting in the killing of more than 1,400 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to the Israeli authorities, who counted more than two hundred hostages. Of Israelis, foreigners and dual citizens.
Israel responded with intense bombing of the Gaza Strip, killing 5,791 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the Ministry of Health in the Hamas government.
Georgieva’s statements came the day after leaders in the international banking sector warned that the war between Israel and Hamas could deal a strong blow to the global economy. “What we’re seeing is more stress in an anxious world,” she said.
“We have countries that depend on tourism, and uncertainty is fatal to the flow of tourists,” she added.
She continued, “Investors will feel reluctant to go to that place. The cost of insurance, if transporting goods, will rise. The risks of having more refugees in countries that already host many.”
The annual Future Investment Initiative conference, also known as “Davos in the Desert,” is an opportunity for Saudi Arabia to highlight domestic economic reforms, the success of which Saudi officials say depends on the stability of the region.
The sudden outbreak of war contradicts the vision of the Saudi leadership for a stable and prosperous Middle East, especially after Riyadh this year restored its relations with its regional rival, Iran, and was approaching historic normalization with Israel.
“Everything will go ahead”
Several parties expressed their fear that the war would expand to include other fronts, especially in light of Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah exchanging cross-border bombing.
The pessimism expressed by some of the most prominent speakers at the gathering, which began on Tuesday and will continue for three days, highlighted the difficulties that may face the attempts of the Kingdom, the largest oil exporting country in the world, to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels.
Others spoke of Saudi Arabia’s ability to withstand shocks and finance reforms through the hugely wealthy Public Investment Fund.
Years ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched “Vision 2030”, which aims to diversify Saudi Arabia’s sources of income and reduce the dependency of its economy on fossil fuels, by transforming Saudi Arabia into a tourist and commercial center that includes many huge projects, including the NEOM project, the future city, which costs approximately 500 billion dollars.
“In Saudi Arabia itself, everything will go ahead, and companies in Western countries, India and China will not miss the Saudi market,” said Nasser Al-Tamimi, a Middle East affairs analyst at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies.
He continued to Agence France-Presse, “We are talking about the largest economy in the Middle East, and the largest construction market in the Middle East,” downplaying the possibility that Saudi Arabia would be affected by the war between Israel and Hamas, which entered its third week last Saturday.
© 2023 AFP
#war #Israel #Hamas #begun #affect #regions #economies #director #International #Monetary #Fund
2023-10-25 08:11:09
