Student Post

Arab Spring in Algeria

February 20, 2012 by zweidrick13

The Arab Spring uprising is one that has impacted many countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa with large Arab populations. The unrest has forced many countries to change the ways in which they do economic planning. It has put pressure on governments to increase economic opportunities. Ways in which governments do this is through providing more jobs or by increasing wages paid to the workers. To really understand the impact of the Arab Spring movement we must first understand what the movement is.

The Arab Spring movement is one that was motivated by issues such as unfair government policies, human rights violations, and economic decline. Specifically in the country of Algeria, the uprising came as a result of a lack of decent housing for its citizens. During these initial protests 59 people were reported as injured by police brutality. Despite these initial protests, Algeria had been able to remain somewhat under the radar during the recent years of Arab Spring protests. This is surprising considering Algeria has a rich history of political protests, which end in violence for both sides. The Algerian’s knowledge of what can happen during these political upheavals is a major reason that the country has stayed out of the spotlight.

The Algerian population was primarily seeking better food prices. In response to these demands the government implemented short-term reforms that lowered the cost of certain foods such as milk, cooking oil, and sugar. The subsidies on these goods were matched by increased wages in the public sector as well as a decrease in imports. Another major factor in the unrest in Algeria is the unemployment, especially of the youth. The youth unemployment is at 45% and will most likely rise as approximately 300,000 youth enter the work force each year.

The economic impact of the Arab Spring uprising in Algeria is seen in the lowering of taxes and increased wages in the public sector. The impact of these government decisions will most likely be seen in the consumption portion of the market and will provide households with increased purchasing power in the market. Firms will receive a benefit from these decisions as well. Firms will be able to sell more goods and therefore profits will rise within this area. As households are assumed to be the entity in charge of firms, the general population will yield both a direct benefit and an indirect benefit from these changes. Unemployment rate may also be impact positively. As firms benefit they may choose to expand and hire more workers. This will decrease the unemployment rate and help the overall economy. Rising costs of oil will also help the overall economy of Algeria, as it is one of its major exports.

Source: Algeria at the Crossroads, Between Continuity and Change
Andrea Dessi

Filed Under: Algeria, Feature, Student Post Tagged With: Algeria, Economy

Arab Spring Effect on Algeria

February 20, 2012 by ereese14

While other northern African countries are struggling because of Arab Spring, Algeria has been holding its own. This may be because of their revolts in 1988 that led to their “Dark Decade” from 1991-2001. These 1988 revolts led to a new constitution for Algeria, but their 1991 elections were invalidated by the Algerian army. This unfortunately led to a civil wear that resulted in over 150,000 casualties. This time in Algerian history is said to be why Algeria has not been hit as badly as neighboring countries by the Arab Spring. These past years have left a big enough mark on the Algerian people that they are now thinking twice when it comes to revolting.

Because Algerians are conservative about revolting against their government, their revolts are not as threatening as surrounding countries. These weaker riots are much easier to control. Algeria controls these riots by using the wealth they have gotten from their oil industry. This money is then used for increases in employees’ salaries and food subsidies. Not only is the Algerian government trying to control the angry Algerians rioting in the street, but they are also trying to give a boost to their economy. Consequently, Algeria’s market is then benefitted by this increase in cash flow in the country. More money in their economy will increase their cash flow. It is hoped that, this will increase their economy. This will be a great advantage to Algeria compared to neighboring countries if they can give a lift to their economy because they are already one of the least phased of countries effected by the Arab Spring.

Algeria also gave handouts to young people who are currently unemployed. These handouts are not only passed out to help maintain their riots, but also they are intended to help these young unemployed citizens manage without a job. Algeria will able to give such subsidies and handouts for a little while because of their large amount of foreign currency reserves of over $100 billion. The more money in consumers hands, the more they will be willing to purchase goods. They do face long-term trouble when it comes to one of their biggest economic markets, gas.

Their gas production has recently hit a quiescent period. It is reported that it will soon start to decrease, consequently hurting its economy. The Arab Spring is not helping them out in this manner because of the troubles and riots their neighboring countries are having. This leads to a decrease in communication with them because these countries are to busy being involved with their domestic problems, and this will lead to a decrease in trading.

While it is unfortunate the Algeria had to experience the “Dark Decade” throughout the 1990’s, they are fortunate that they did go through that because the Arab Spring has shown less effect on them than on other countries. They can also thank their money reserves. This money has been used to settle the small amount of rioters that they do have. The more subtle effect this money has on Algeria is that it can be used to increase spending in Algeria. Little businesses can benefit from this money given out to potential consumers. While Algeria’s economy is doing adequate now in the short run, the long run is the main concern for Algeria. Their natural gas industry is planning on declining. This is where the Arab Spring will have the most impact on Algeria’s government. The corruption going on in surrounding countries is hurting their long term economic future, but their short term future is safe with help from their money reserves.

Filed Under: Algeria, Feature, Student Post Tagged With: Algeria, Economy

Economic Indicators for the Arab Spring

February 20, 2012 by shagen14

Steve Hagen

Arab Spring Economic Content

The Arab Spring is an uprising of demonstrations and protests in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria, as well as a few other countries in the area that began late 2010. This uprising has caused a lot of damage to many of these countries politically and economically. I will examine the economic content involved in a few of these countries, particularly Egypt, Libya, and Syria throughout the uprising, and observe economic indicators to see how much of an impact the Arab Spring has had on these countries.

While many lives have been lost during the violent Arab Spring, there have also been many economic losses as well. Since the beginning of the demonstrations and protests, there have been over $51 billion in total costs for Egypt, Libya, and Syria (“Arab Spring Losses”). Of this debt, approximately $18 billion were costs to GDP and around $33 were costs to public finance in these countries. However, these numbers only illustrate part of the economic problems in Egypt, Libya, and Syria. To truly understand the crisis in these Arab countries we must observe the following four economic indicators: unemployment rate, real personal income, retail sales, and industrial production.

CIA – The World Factbook estimates the unemployment rate in Egypt to currently be 12.2%. This is up approximately 3.2% from the estimated 9% unemployment rate just a year ago. This shows the devastating effect that the Arab Spring has had on Egypt’s unemployment rate. The same source also estimates the unemployment rate in Syria to be about 8.1%. This is not a very big difference from the 8.3% unemployment rate in Syria from a year ago, so the Arab Spring has not had much of an impact on unemployment rate in Syria. Compared to the previous two countries, Libya has a very high unemployment rate. It is estimated to be about 30% (“Libya — Revolution and Aftermath”). This high unemployment rate is clearly related to the economic problems that the Arab Spring has caused.

While real personal income data may be tough to find for these countries, GDP per capita according to CIA – The World Factbook gives a good estimation of a person’s income per year. In Egypt, it is estimated that the GDP per capita is $6,500 for 2011. This is the same as the GDP per capita in Egypt for 2010. Given a 13.3% inflation rate in Egypt in 2011 (CIA – The World Factbook), the fact that the GDP per capita stayed the same for this two year span shows that the Arab Spring hurt personal income in Egypt. In Libya, the GDP per capita dropped from $14,100 in 2010 to $0 in 2011. Due to the political effects of Muammar Gaddafi, his radical ideas and actions had a direct correlation with the GDP per capita in Libya. In Syria, the GDP per capita decreased from $5,200 in 2010 to $5,100 in 2011. Similar to Egypt, a 7% inflation rate makes this decrease seem much more severe.

The Arab Spring has hurt Egypt in terms of retail sales. In the first two months of 2011, approximately $1 billion were lost in retail sales due to the Arab Spring (“Egypt Retail Report Q4 2011”). BBC News suggests that Libya similarly had major losses in retail sales in 2011 due to the demonstrations and violence brought by the Arab Spring, majorly because of decreases in tourism (Smale). BBC News also suggests that Syria had losses in retail sales. This was in large part because of losses in tourism due to the protests going on in Syria. This also hurt tourism in neighboring countries such as Lebanon (“Syrian Protests”).

Finally, the Arab Spring has had dramatic effects on industrial production in these three countries. The industrial production growth rate is 5.7% in Egypt (CIA – The World Factbook). This is relatively high compared to many other countries throughout the world. Due to the Arab Spring, Syria has a low level of industrial productivity (state.gov). Similar to Syria, Libya is also experiencing troubles with industrial growth due to the uprising of the Arab Spring. These repressed results show a direct relationship between the Arab Spring and a decrease in industrial production in Syria and Libya.

In conclusion, the Arab Spring has had many harsh effects and few positive effects on the nations involved in this uprising. By use of the four provided economic indicators, we can reasonably justify the struggles in these countries, especially Egypt, Libya, and Syria.

Bibliography

“Arab Spring Losses.” Zawya. Accessed February 16, 2012. Last modified October 16, 2011. http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20111016064955/Arab_Spring_losses. Central Intelligence Agency. The World

Factbook. Accessed February 16, 2012. Last modified December 30, 2011. https://www.cia.gov/index.html.

“Egypt Retail Report Q4 2011.” ResearchAndMarkets. Accessed February 16, 2012. Last modified October 2011. http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/44e074/egypt_retail_repor.

“Libya — Revolution and Aftermath.” The New York Times. Accessed February 16, 2012. Last modified February 9, 2012. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/libya/index.html.

Smale, Will. “Arab Nations Aim to Win Back Tourists.” BBC News. Accessed February 16, 2012. Last modified November 9, 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15651730.

“Syrian Protests Hit Lebanon Tourism.” BBC News. Accessed February 16, 2012. Last modified October 2, 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/15145225.

U.S. Department of State. Accessed February 16, 2012. Last modified February 2012. http://www.state.gov/.

Filed Under: Economic Indicators, Feature, Student Post Tagged With: Economic Indicators

Economic Indicators

February 20, 2012 by zjergan14

Zach Jergan

Arab Spring Economic Indicator

Macro

2/17/12

Economic Indicators Arab Spring

I want to start off by thoroughly describing what the Arab Spring is. The Arab Spring is a revolutionary movement that spread like wildfire throughout the Arab world. To date there have been some form of revolution in 17 different Arab countries. The impact left by the Arab Spring has not only changed political outlooks but economic ones as well. The things that I am going to look over are how some economic indicators were affected in the region by looking at three different countries in particular: Tunisia, Bahrain, and Yemen. These economic indicators should give a good feel of what the outlook is like on the entire region and how damaging it has been.

Let’s go through these alphabetically, starting with Bahrain. According to a table found on zawya.com the cost to GDP in billions of U.S. dollars was $0.39(“Arab Spring losses” October 16, 2011). The costs to personal finance were $0.69. This all accumulated to a total loss of 1.09 billion U.S. dollars. On top of the decline of GDP and personal finance, the last collected unemployment rate I could find on The World Factbook was 15% in 2005. This number might not seem extreme; however looking deeper into the numbers it said that 44% of the workers in Bahrain are non-national workers. This is a very large number and can be attributing to the high unemployment rate. Looking at industrial production it is important to see what industries are prominent in Bahrain. The leading industries are petroleum processing and refining, aluminum smelting, Islamic and offshore banking, and ship repairing. The most recent statistics about industrial production were from 2010 and Bahrain has a growth of 1.5%. This is misleading because the Arab Spring happened in December of that year. Bahrain’s Retail Report forecasts that the country’s retail sales will grow from an expected $2.18 billion in 2011 to $2.90 billion by 2015(“Bahrain Retail Report Q2 2011” April 15, 2011). This is all based on the assumption that the political situation remains stable. Looking at the GDP per capita of Bahrain and seeing that during the Arab Spring it has only dropped from $27,500 to $27,300 in 2011(“World Factbook, Bahrain” February 8, 2012). This is a strong sign that although the Arab Spring may have hurt the personal income a little it did not affect it significantly.

The second country I chose to look at was Tunisia. Tunisia has had no real growth rate from 2010 to 2011(“World Factbook, Tunisia” February 8, 2012). Tunisia’s GDP per capita in 2011 was $9,500 and ranked 112^th in the world. The GDP seems to have been affected by the Arab Offspring because its GDP dropped $100. This directly affected the real personal income of the people of Tunisia because they had less money to spend. Another economic indicator that I looked at was unemployment. Tunisia’s unemployment rate rose 3% from 2010 to 2011(“World Factbook, Tunisia” February 8, 2012). This number seems to have a direct correlation with the Arab Spring and has pushed Tunisia to 151^st in the world in unemployment. Another statistic that Tunisia was ranked 151^st in was industrial production growth rate. This rate came in at 0%. This might not seem alarming but it means that there was no growth at all in the industrial sector, which is not good for a struggling country like Tunisia. Another economic factor I found was that Tunisia had a -8.5% budget deficit of GDP in 2011(“World Factbook, Tunisia” February 8, 2012). This is just another illustration of the Arab Spring and how it is affecting the economic sector of Tunisia. A leading world producer of phosphates, Tunisia’s annual production of phosphates reached a new high in 2008. Shopping malls and local supermarkets only account for 20% of the country’s retail trade, which remains dominated by the local corner shop. (“Industry & Retail Tunisia 2010”)

The final country that I am looking at is Yemen. In 2011 the GDP per capita in 2011 was only $2,500. This ranked Yemen 177^th in the world. The GDP per capita dropped nearly 7.5% from 2010(“World Factbook, Yemen” February 8, 2012). This is a significant drop from one year to another and the reasoning may have been due to the Arab Spring. The drop in GDP per capita would have definitely affected the real personal income in Yemen because there was less money to be used. Another economic indicator that I looked at was economic growth rate. The growth for 2011 in Yemen was -2.5%. This is another factor suggesting the impact of the Arab Spring hurt the economic sector severely. On a positive note the industrial production rate in Yemen went up 9% in 2010, which put them 13^th in the world. However, the Arab Spring took place in December and effects of it were probably not felt in the industrial sector until the following year. Although Yemen suffered some losses in 2011, it is expected that the country will recover relatively and forecast real GDP growth of 2.4% in 2012 (“Oman and Yemen Business Forecast Report Q4 2011” September 23, 2011). This is all dependent on the stability of the government that has been stirred up by the Arab Spring.

After gathering all of this information I can firmly say that Arab Spring has definitely affected the political and economic structures in all of the countries involved. The demonstrations affected the political sector, which then had a negative effect on the economic sector. All of the information provided shows the negative outcomes, at least economically, of the Arab Spring.

References

Central Intelligence Agency, “The World Factbook, Yemen.” Last modified February 8, 2012. Accessed February 16, 2012. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ym.html.

Central Intelligence Agency, “The World Factbook, Bahrain.” Last modified February 8, 2012. Accessed February 16, 2012. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ba.html.

Central Intelligence Agency, “The World Factbook, Tunisia.” Last modified February 8, 2012. Accessed February 16, 2012. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ba.html.

Market Research, “Bahrain Retail Report Q2 2011.” Last modified April 15, 2011. Accessed February 16, 2012. http://www.marketresearch.com/Business-Monitor-International-v304/Bahrain-Retail-Q2-6275196/.

Market Research, “Oman and Yemen Business Forecast Report Q4 2011.” Last modified September 23, 2011. Accessed February 16, 2012. http://www.marketresearch.com/Business-Monitor-International-v304/Oman-Yemen-Business-Forecast-Q4-6611166/.

Zawya, “Arab Spring losses.” Last modified October 16, 2011. Accessed February 16, 2012. http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20111016064955/Arab_Spring_losses.

Oxford Business Group, “Industry & Retail Tunisia 2010.” Accessed February 16, 2012. http://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com/product/industry-retail-12.

Filed Under: Economic Indicators, Feature, Student Post Tagged With: Economic Indicators

The Effect of Arab Spring on Yemen

February 20, 2012 by afrench14

The demonstrations and protests materializing in the Arab World are occurring in an attempt to draw attention to the repression felt by citizens of these countries. Yemen is no exception. Yemen’s protests, commencing in January 2011, called for the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh after 33 years of authoritarian rule. Although the resistance is intended to ignite a social revolution, the consequences of these movements have larger implications for Yemen’s economy and the macroeconomy as a whole.

Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Arab World and is heavily dependent on oil resources for revenue. According to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook, “petroleum accounts for roughly 25% of GDP and 70% of government revenue.” However, Yemen faces diminishing resources, largely responsible for the country’s further decline. Although the government has taken steps to bolster non-oil sectors of the economy along with foreign investment, they must still battle longterm challenges such as dwindling water resources and a high population growth rate in addition to Arab Spring.

The political turmoil caused by Arab Spring has exacerbated rising unemployment. The most recent estimate of the unemployment rate reached 35%. This in turn results in a loss of income and therefore a decline in standards of living. This is accurately reflected in GDP per capita, estimated at $2,500 in 2011. The population below the poverty line was also listed at 45.2%. This is no surprise as political turmoil often demands that attention be focused elsewhere, rather than on the current state of the economy.

Rising unemployment also has the property of a domino effect. Those people facing unemployment will have less demand for goods and services, thus affecting the employees in the sector that provides those goods and services. A decrease in demand means that the marginal product of labor decreases. A chain reaction ensures, causing more workers to be laid off. In addition, the decrease in wages implies a decreasing money multiplier. If people do not have money to save and invest, the banks cannot create more money by distributing loans.

Yemen, already a suffering country, is experiencing a loss of national output as well. If people are spending their time protesting rather than working, resources are being wasted, which also decreases GDP. The government must also focus on welfare spending despite foreign aid they receive for development projects and humanitarian needs, which increases deficits. An increase in government spending results in a decline of national savings, raising the interest rate and discouraging investment. In addition, government spending is heightened even more as the government attempts to stifle more protests and uprisings. The corrupt government, heightened by Arab Spring, extends into the judicial system as well. This insinuates that contracts are not enforced and private property rights are not respected. This limits economic security and freedom, and discourages foreign investment.

Yemen has also experienced surging inflation rates since Arab Spring, ranking as one of the highest rates in the world, now at 20%. This is a significant increase from the 2010 inflation rate of 11.2%. This inflation occurs as the government issues large quantities of money to pay for expenditures. With this, seigniorage occurs, which can be thought of as a tax. Inflation tax hurts those who hold the money because old money in the hands of the public becomes less valuable. The difference between the value of money and what it costs to print the money is seigniorage and goes to the issuer of the money. In countries experiencing hyperinflation, this is often the government’s primary source of revenue.

Further, the Fisher effect explicates a one-to-one relation between the inflation rate and nominal interest rate (the rate the bank pays). Thus, when inflation is high, nominal interest rates are high as well. This lowers the demand for real money balances, the quantity of money in terms of the quantity of goods and services it can buy. In other words, it measures the purchasing power of the stock of money. If demand decreases, there is a decreased desire among the population to hold assets in the form of cash or bank deposits because of it’s decrease in value. This is true for Yemen, as it experiences high inflation.

Arab Spring has negatively affected Yemen’s already poor economy. The adverse effects are intertwined, leading the country farther into poverty. These multiplier effects not only travel through Yemen’s economy, but through the macroeconomy as a whole. The World Bank experienced interrupted projects during the political crisis in 2011 is just one example. Thus, Arab Spring is not only a crisis for the Arab World, but the world in its entirety.

Filed Under: Feature, Student Post, Yemen Tagged With: Economy, Yemen

Industrial Output and Economic Growth in Tunisia

February 20, 2012 by amoller14

One year after the Arab Spring, what is the impact of this event on the macroeconomics of Tunisia?

– A look at industrial output data as a model for measuring economic growth.

Anders K. Møller, 2/17/2012

Tunisia was the first country during the Arab Spring to experience huge protests against the incumbent government, under the 23-year long rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The revolution began in December 2010 following the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi on December 17^th in protest against the corruption of the local administration. Demonstrations in solidarity with Bouazizi and against the corrupt regime of Ben Ali from years of poverty and political suppression ensued, culminating in the departure of Ben Ali on January 14^th. In this blog entry I will seek to establish a model for evaluating the economic effects of the Arab Spring in Tunisia (also known as the Jasmine Revolution of that country), and test it against a general economic indicator.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in the United States measures the activity of the economy according to four factors, namely industrial production, employment levels, real income levels, and sales in both wholesale and retail. I will attempt to measure the economic pulse of Tunisia during and after the Jasmine Revolution by looking at industrial production levels within the economy, presuming that violent political upheaval will have a detrimental effect to the economy. I will then seek to confirm my results by comparing to the traditional economic indicator, namely Real GDP.

According to data obtained from the Tunisia National Institute of Statistics, the industrial monthly index (using year 2000 as base 100) shows a growth in annual industrial production from 1352.4 million to 1411.3 million dinars (TND: Tunisian Dinar) from 2009 to 2010. However, at the height of revolution in January 2011 we see a sudden decrease in monthly output compared to the previous year, from TND 130.4 million to TND 116.1 million. This is strong evidence of a general halt in production among a large swathe of firms within the economy as a result of the violent demonstrations by the populace. Both January and February saw huge demonstrations until Prime Minister Ghannouchi resigned on 2/27/2011, and our presumption is further backed by the fall in February production from a year prior from TND 124.6 million to TND 111.1 million. Come March, we see not only a stabilizing political environment but also a return towards normal production levels. By April, monthly production had exceeded the level of the same month in 2009 indicating that the economy had returned to normal. Although average monthly industrial output for 2010 ended up lower than 2009 (pending statistics for the month of December), the total output was still higher in 2010 at TND 1539.6 million compared to TND 1411.3 million. A table summarizing the data is shown below:

	January	February	March	April	May	June	July
2009	122.9	116.0	118.9	123.1	123.1	127.8	133.9
2010	130.4	124.6	133.5	132.1	136.8	139.4	145.4
2011	116.1	111.1	127.8	133.0	136.7	138.7	138.9

August	September	October	November	December	Avg	Total
120.2	118.6	127.0	120.9	127.5	123.3	1352.4
125.8	126.1	137.1	126.6	136.2	132.8	1411.3
121.0	130.2	136.8	121.0	–	128.3	1539.6

As can be seen from our model developed above, there’s a close correlation between political instability and economic output. Our data have shown us a sharp decrease for the months of January and February in 2011, the period with the most violent demonstrations and worst political instability. Although the economy managed to pick up from March and onwards, the year 2011 could still have seen much higher industrial output. To confirm whether the economy as a whole was truly affected as indicated from the drop in production output, we will not take a look at Tunisia’s Real GDP for the Period.In 2010, the Real GDP growth rate in Tunisia was 3.7% according to the World Bank. The last quarter in the year saw a steady growth of 1.6%, but this number plunged in early 2011. In the first quarter from January through March, Tunisia’s GDP growth plummeted to -7.8%. Although the economy is seen to pick up in the next two quarters, the annual Real GDP growth rate is estimated to be only 2.4% for 2011. This is illustrated on the graph below, taken from tradingeconomics.com:Although accurate numbers for 2011 have not been published yet, the Real GDP growth confirms our findings based on industrial output: At the height of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, economic growth as a whole was severely hindered. The strong correlation between Real GDP and Industrial Output therefore confirms out modeling of the economy based on industry production.In spite of the quick recovery in the second quarter of 2011, Real GDP could have grown significantly more if the revolution had not taken place. In spite of this one, one could surmise that the Jasmine Revolution will have a positive effect on the economy in the long-run as the new government raises both political and economic freedom.

Filed Under: Feature, Student Post, Tunisia Tagged With: Economics, Economy, Tunisia, Tunisia Economy, Tunisian Economy

Impact of the Arab Spring on Tunisia’s Economy

February 20, 2012 by njain14

Tunisia’s Economy : After the Arab Spring

Naman Jain

Tunisia is a country located in Africa, and also constitutes the Arab League. It was one of the countries where protests had taken place last year; the protests that had led to the coinage of the term – Arab Spring. According to Amara, the aftermath of the Arab Spring in Tunisia has seen a decline in the speed of “investment”, an increase in “unemployment”, and the fall of tourism ; and it is claimed by “businessmen and government officials” that this condition in Tunisia is due to the “strikes” and “sit-ins” carried out by Tunisians. Yet, it seems unfair to stem the blame on the sit ins, as the Tunisians did so for a better future. Unfortunately, the economy suffered because of that. Amara also says that the people in Tunisia, whose GDP is similar to that of the Dominican Republic, are causing the very “problems” that they are “protesting” against, and these problems involve “poverty and unemployment”. Amara says that Tunisia saw “shrinking of the economy”, increase in the “unemployment rate”, and its tourism sector, “Tunisia’s biggest source of foreign currency”, being hit; all by pretty significant numbers. Amara says “It [“the new government”] has secured billions of dollars in loans and aid from foreign governments and international institutions to get it through the slump. The prime minister . . . travelled to the past week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to tout for investment.” He says that the “unrest” is serving as a barrier to the government’s idea of “public investment targeting the poorest and most restive parts of the country” which according to “Employment Minister Abdel-Wahab Maatar” would lead to the “creation” of jobs – around 250,000 in “public and private sectors”. The evidence shows that unfortunately, the unrest is the main obstacle to a strong economy in Tunisia in the post – Arab Spring world.

An article in The Economist titled “Arab spring economies : Unfinished business” says “Tunisia saw its GDP growth in 2011 go from 3% to 0%, according to the IMF – the Tunisian government says the economy actually contracted by 1.8%”(49). Such a steep downfall in the growth of GDP certainly indicates the poor condition of the economy that post – Arab Spring Tunisia has. The article says “There are four main reasons for the economic downturn in the post-revolution countries”(49). The article says that these reasons are “instability” because it “has driven away customers and undermined business confidence” ; “strikes” ; “poor state of the government machinery” ; and “the chill that has descended over all businesses connected to the previous rulers, especially privatised ones” (49-50). An article on the United Arab Emirates based The National written by Farah Halime says “Unemployment is a huge problem in Tunisia, with about 700,000 jobless in a population of approximately 10.6 million.” Halime also says “Tourism, a vital driver of employment and foreign currency earnings, was down by as much as 50 per cent after the revolution, government statistics showed”. This can be described as another impact of the Arab Spring on Tunisia’s economy.
The one factor that one can look at is the GDP of Tunisia. Mankiw says “Gross domestic product, or GDP, is often considered the best measure of how well the economy is performing”(18). If Tunisia’s GDP has fallen so drastically, it obviously indicates that the economy is not doing well after the Arab Spring struck Tunisia. However, one must also consider unemployment in Tunisia as an economic impact of the Arab Spring.
A nuqudy.com article says “Tunisia’s budget deficit should rise to 6% of GDP in 2012 from an estimated 4.5% in 2011 as the government plans to increase spending in an attempt to reinvigorate the economy which was severely hurt by the effects of the revolution”. It says “The budget also forecasts a GDP growth of 4.5% in 2012, well above the 0.2% which was estimated for 2011. Furthermore, the government expects the economy to create 75,000 thousand jobs.” The article from The Economist says “Tunisia’s government has vowed to raise growth to 8% and reduce unemployment from 19% to 8.5% by 2016”. The difference from 19% to 8.5% seems extremely impressive, and it would be great for the Tunisian economy if the government can achieve the lowering of the unemployment rate.
We can hence say that Tunisia’s economy was impacted severely by the Arab Spring. Tunisians must work hard in helping their economy recover after the revolution, in achieving what they as citizens want for their country.

Works Cited

Amara, Tarek. “FEATURE – Tunisia’s economy still awaits post-revolt bounce.” Reuters 1 February, 2012. Web. 17 February, 2012. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/01/tunisia-economy-idUSL5E8CO1XC20120201.

“Arab spring economies: Unfinished business.” The Economist 4 February, 2012: 49-50.

Halime, Farah. “Tunisia’s new goal – show how to build economy after revolution.” The National 23 October , 2011. Web. 17 February, 2012. http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/industry-insights/economics/tunisias-new-goal-show-how-to-build-economy-after-revolution.

Mankiw, N. Gregory. Macroeconomics: Seventh Edition. New York: Worth Publishers, 2010. Print.

“Tunisia’s budget deficit to rise to 6% of GDP.” nuqudy.com 4 January, 2012. Web. 17 February, 2012. http://english.nuqudy.com/General_Overview/North_Africa/Tunisias_budget_def-477.

Filed Under: Feature, Student Post, Tunisia Tagged With: Economy, Tunisia

The “Arab Spring” and Egypt

February 20, 2012 by tduhon15

When asked to evaluate the effect of the “Arab Spring” upon the economy in Egypt, I guess my response would have to be: “Probably, not much.” The revolution in Egypt, which is one of the main events within the “Arab Spring”, was mostly a political revolution. They ousted Hosni Mubarak, cleaned up corruption in the government and demanded a rewriting of their constitution. However, as fine and dandy as all of those things are, they are going to have little economic impact. Alright, one could cite the fact that state officials used their influence to create business trusts for their benefit, the most notable being in the steel industry with over half of the entirety being controlled by Egyptian political figures, but the other trusts are much smaller. That steel industry fact is misleading as well, considering that Egypt’s economy is only 40% industrial production [1]. The true problem that Egypt faced was, and still is, unemployment. With unemployment figures hovering in the low to mid teens; the job market is in dire straits in Egypt. This is caused by a massive youth bulge within Egypt; the population has more than doubled in the past 40 years and the labor force is growing at the size of 4% a year [4]. That is a problem that is not going away with a simple political revolution. The Egyptian economy could have possibly kept up with this massive population growth, if it hadn’t been for the collapse of international markets a few years after the turn of the century. The growth of GDP has been crawling along for the past couple years, and the recent revolution has lowered the projected GDP for the country, the World Bank actually is predicting a slowing of all growth in developing countries in the next few years [2] . This in combination with unrest over low minimum wages, which means that the newly elected politicians will probably cave in an attempt to curry favor, means that unemployment will probably rise even more. So I retract my previous “not much” statement, and replace it with, “it’s going to get worse.” Now while there will be some changes in the economic environment with the reduction of corruption, Egypt scored a 3.1 on the Corruption Perceptions Index in 2010 so it’s not like they could get much more, it is doubtful they will be able to even come close to combating this unemployment problem [3]. The closest thing Egypt has to a chance of overcoming this, in my opinion, is for the new government to take the hit. Raising the minimum wage, while reducing taxes, specifically payroll taxes, would serve to boost the economy. An expansion of the bureaucracy and government sponsored projects to reduce unemployment, similar to the method championed by Rick Perry in Texas, would also serve to boost the economy. This, however, would increase the government’s debt, with it occupying over 85% of GDP already [1]. The future does not look bright for Egypt in my opinion, I foresee it having a rough couple of years, with bigger problems looming farther down the line. That is because Egypt’s problems result from severe structural issues within the economy that cannot be rectified through a simple regime change.

[1] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html

[2] http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTDECPROSPECTS/GEPEXT/0,,contentMDK:22804791~pagePK:51087946~piPK:51087916~theSitePK:538110,00.html

[3] http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results

[4] http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/new-egypt/long-term-economic-challenges-egypt-must-overcome

Filed Under: Egypt, Feature, Student Post Tagged With: Economy, Egypt

Economic Impact of the Arab Spring in Tunisia

February 20, 2012 by agodonoga14

Tunisia was the first country where the Arab Spring “fire” started. The country was facing times of political and economic instability dealing with high level of corruption, high prices, unemployment, political oppression and poverty. The government censored access to information by placing restrictions on the Internet and on the Media. Tunisia found itself in a period of great oppression under the presidency of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, who, after manipulating the country for twenty-four years, ultimately got overthrown as a result of massive protests that started in December 2010, later on turning into massive, violent riots which resulted in socio-economic chaos, death and instability. In October 2011, The National Constituent Assembly was formed. Its primary task is to regulate the political system and to resuscitate the economy.

The Arab Spring left Tunisia in a deplorable economic situation. According to the report “Re-thinking the Arab Spring”, published by Geopolicity in October 2011, the cost of the uprisings in Tunisia are estimated at $2.03 billion, which counts for 5.22% of the GDP. (http://www.geopolicity.com/upload/content/pub_1318911442_regular.pdf)

The experts who put together the report classified the countries affected by the “Arab Spring” as economies projected to be either net economic losers or net economic winners. Expanding on this theory, Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Syria are in the category of countries losing most with few winners.

In the following paragraphs, we will examine the impact of the riots on several economic indicators such as unemployment, inflation rate, government spending, general debt and investment. In addition, a team of experts of the International Monetary Fund posted estimates of a set of economic indicators for 2011-2016. This information will give us a rough estimate of the future picture of Tunisia’s economy. We will begin our analysis by examining the impact of the “Arab Spring” on the economic indicators mentioned above.

1. Impact on unemployment and on inflation rate. In Tunisia, 13% of people who are in the labor force are currently unemployed, youth unemployment exceeds 26% and the unemployment among recent graduates keeps growing day by day. The Economist posted an article which states that people are also frustrated because the distribution of wealth is uneven between the rich cities and the poor rural areas, also making the distribution of job opportunities unbalanced(http://www.economist.com/node/17862305). Inflation rate in 2009 was 3.7%, reaching 5% in 2011. The increases in unemployment and inflation rate are factors that aggravate the economic situation.

2. Government spending and general debt. As a consequence of the protests, the government expenditures increased (US$746 million), altering the fiscal balance by US$489 million. Other indicators such as the gross national savings decreased by 2 % in just one year; external debt also grew by $4 billion, the budget deficit reached 8.5% of the GDP, and industrial production for 2011 registered a 0% growth. (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ts.html)

3. Investment. The newly elected National Constituent Assembly has a set of challenging tasks to accomplish: apart from lowering the unemployment rate, reducing the budget deficit and regulate the fiscal system, the Assembly must increase investment and business development. International Monetary Fund (IMF) data presents that investment percentage share to GDP decreased from 26.4 to 25.3. Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF expresses her opinion on this matter: “Fiscal deficits have widened, which raises concerns about sustainability. It pushes up interest rates, which makes it harder for the private sector to get credit to set up or expand businesses and start hiring people”(Lagarde, http://www.imf.org/external/np/speeches/2011/120611.htm).

According to Lagarde, the government should change its fiscal policies so it would generate funds for business development, infrastructure, education and health. It is of primary importance for the private sector to collaborate with the government to promote investment and competitiveness and to reduce the level of corruption that grew from 4.3 in 2012 to 3.8 in 2011(the ten scale indicates the following: 10-very clean, 0-highly corrupt, http://cpi.transparency.org/cpi2011/results/#CountryResults). According to Lagarde, the IMF is currently helping Tunisia to strengthen the financial sector, one of Tunisia’s economic strategic initiatives.

Data shows that other factors such as GDP and GDP per capita seem not to be affected by the riots. GDP rose from 2010 by approximately $2.3 billion. GDP per capita shows a slight increase as well. (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD)

Lastly, we will discuss the future economic situation in Tunisia by analyzing the estimated indicators provided by the IMF. The situation looks promising if we look at the data: GDP per capita will double by 2016; the share of total investment to GDP is expected to increase by 3%. Government expenditure is expected to fall by 2016, while government revenues will not present major fluctuations. Unemployment rate is expected to drop by at least 1% and gross national savings are expected to grow by 5%. It is important to note that these economic milestones can be reached only through democratization and economic liberalization.

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/02/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2009&ey=2016&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&pr1.x=64&pr1.y=6&c=744&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CNID_NGDP%2CNGSD_NGDP%2CPCPI%2CPCPIPCH%2CTMG_RPCH%2CTXGO%2CTMGO%2CLUR%2CLP%2CGGR_NGDP%2CGGX_NGDP%2CGGXWDG_NGDP%2CBCA%2CBCA_NGDPD&grp=0&a

Filed Under: Feature, Student Post, Tunisia Tagged With: Tunisia

Tourism and Investment

February 20, 2012 by njacubec14

The Arab Spring had many negative economic impacts in the Middle East and North Africa. I will focus on Syria. Syria was one of the last countries to experience these negative effects but may be the country that withstands the lasting effects of the Arab Spring the longest. The impact of the Arab Spring negatively affected the economy and reduced the income flow because of the lack of investment and the diminishing number of tourists traveling to Syria.

Strikes, marches, rallies, and protests took place in Syria. The people involved in the Arab Spring fought against violations to their human rights, government corruption, extreme poverty, and dictatorship. Unrest between the government and the Syrian people caused the U.S. and British governments to advise tourists to stay away from the Middle East and North Africa. Big investors held onto their money and did not invest in big projects. There was fear of the economy tanking and high risk of not receiving any return on their investment. Tourists feared travel to Syria because of confrontation between the people and the government. They took their currency elsewhere.

Tourism accounts for 12% of Syria’s GDP and directly impacts more than 10% of the total employment. Since the protests began, the tourist sector of the economy took a tremendous hit. In 2010 the Syrian economy had over 8.5 million tourists, which brought in $8 billionof foreign currency. Syria experienced hardly any tourism in 2011 and lost a large supply of income. Tourism is a proven aspect of an economy that encourages job creation and develops communities. Hotels and restaurants are two goods that tourists consume the most. Those two goods combined employ 928,703 people in the Syrian economy, which is the largest sector of employment in Syria and the government invests in tourism. The decrease in tourism will directly affect the amount of revenue that those two goods receive and will eventually lead to businesses firing workers. This will ultimately increase the unemployment rate, decrease output and consumption, and lowers the countries GDP. The future growth of the economy depends on tourism and without it Syria’s economy will decline.

Tourism not only brings people and money to an area but also influences investment. When tourists travel they bring their foreign currency with them. That currency is then used to buy imported goods and services. The Syrian government depends on foreign currency because it leads to foreign investment, and the Syrian economy relies on foreign investment to move towards open markets. If the Syrian economy wanted to move towards open markets they would need to encourage foreign investment. Since stability in the economy is diminishing, big investors are holding onto their savings. Until the economy improves investors will not risk losing potential income.

Tourism and Investment are two aspects of the economy that contribute to growth. Syria may be in for the long hall because people are still unhappy and their protests are still ongoing. Changes to their government have been made but not in the ways that a growing economy wants. With tourism and investment very low, the economy may be in for a continuous downward spiral.

Filed Under: Feature, Student Post, Syria Tagged With: Syria, Tourism

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