looks good for 2007 Simply put, the economic outlook for the Middle East in 2007 is good. Investment flows, GDP projections, and international demand forecasts for the region’s export commodities, oil and gas, point to a year of growth for the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region.Within the forecast-happy pages of the World Economic Outlook (WEO, a product of the International Monetary Fund) the outlook for the Middle East region “generally remains favorable, given that oil prices are expected to remain high, and regional GDP growth is projected at close to 6% in 2006. With continued prudent financial politics and little growth in oil production, GDP growth is expected to moderate slightly to about 5.5% in 2007.”These growth forecasts position the region well ahead of global averages for GDP developments in 2006 and 2007, which the IMF projects as 5.1% and 4.9% respectively. However, this big picture view easily crumbles into
