What are some challenges to economic growth in the Middle East?

Answer 1

There are several major challenges to economic growth in the Middle East.

Population Growth Rates: The Middle East has one of the highest growth rates in the the world and the population only continues to skyrocket. The median age in most Arab World countries is between 18-25, whereas it is between 30-50 in most developed countries. This causes massive unemployment and joblessness.

Lack of Food & Water Resources: The Middle East is host to some of the largest deserts in the world, only four year-long rivers, and very infertile land. This prevents many areas in the Middle East from being agriculturally productive and also drives up the cost of basic necessities.

Urbanization: Since the areas that have access to Food & Water Resources are few and the population is rising so quickly, this has led to uncontrollable and unplanned mass urbanization. Cities are expanding faster than city planners can keep up, leading to all sorts of traffic congestion and unsafe neighborhoods due to poor planning and road structure.

Gap Between Wealthy and Poor: While the Middle East is host to a lot of oil wealth, that wealth is controlled by relatively few individuals. Most of the populations struggles to have enough money to provide for their needs. As a result, many Middle Eastern countries cannot develop a consumption culture, since the average people cannot consume.

Bribery: Almost all civil servants in Arab countries use bribes in order to secure additional payment for their mediocre services, leading to increased costs and higher lag-times between petition and effective application. This has also exacerbated the benefits that the system can have for the wealthy over the poor and middle classes.