Oil prices are not expected to rise much next year, and will stay in the $40-50 a barrel range, putting additional pressure on the oil exporters in the Middle East, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Monday in its update on the Regional Economic Outlook for the Middle East and Central Asia. Gross domestic product in the region is set to drop by 4.1 percent this year, a downward revision of 1.3 percentage points compared with IMF’s forecast in April 2020. The economies in the oil exporters in the Middle East and North Africa are expected to suffer more and shrink by 6.6 percent this year, according to the IMF. The six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—will see their economies slump by 6.0 percent in 2020, before rising by 2.3 percent in 2021. In Q2, […]