Heightened volatility in oil prices as well as political instability will combine to pressure economic growth in the Middle East, the International Monetary Fund warned in the latest edition of its Regional Economic Outlook Update for the region. Inflation in the Middle East will remain high, at about 10 percent, according to the report, with economic growth declining from some 2 percent last year to 1.5 percent this year. Yet these are the average figures. In reality, the countries in the Middle East face rather different challenges. Iran is the country that will suffer the most from the trends the IMF talks about because of the U.S. sanctions. According to Jihad Azour, the fund’s department director for the Middle East and Central Asia, the recession already gripping Iran will deepen to 6 percent this year from 4 percent in 2018. Since Tehran has signaled it has no intention to […]