HE Obaid Humaid Al Tayer participates in the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee meetings

In a statement, HE Al Tayer referred to the world economic outlook, developments in global financial markets, policies that have been taken by IMF members and its effects on restoring economic stability and confidence to global markets.

He said there are encouraging signs indicating that global markets are emerging from the worst financial and economic crisis in the post second world war period. HE Al Tayer noted that the prospects for global economy have become more stable, which calls for intense efforts to restore consumer and investor confidence, in the light of low inflation rates.

In this context, HE Al Tayer said that in spite of encouraging signs, some markets of industrialized countries went into recession, urging countries to adopt non-traditional fiscal and monetary policies to contain this recession.

The Minister said that the U.S. economy has achieved positive growth in the second half of 2009 and its financial incentive package had played a major role in this regard. He also pointed out that the tightening of credit in European countries will impact the growth of private investments, which in turn will lead to high rates of unemployment. In order to restore trust and economic growth, European countries will need to increasingly coordinate on economic policies.

On the economic status of the Middle East, the Minister said that the region experienced a decline in growth due to lower world oil prices and low volume production. Growth rate in the region reached 2.25% in 2009. HE Tayer noted that there were strong expectations that this percentage will increase in 2010. He also confirmed that a large number of countries in the region are suffering a deflation in remittances and tourism and a decline in the volume of foreign direct investments.

The Minister commended the importance of the IMF's role in containing the crises. The doubling of resources allocated to IMF's loans and reforms in compliance with the debt policy and the facilities it provided to some countries had a vital and unique role in achieving economic balance of those countries, he said.

HE Al Tayer referred to the significance of strengthening IMF's surveillance. It is important that IMF introduces new mechanisms and methods to predict crises before they occur. He lauded IMF's ability to develop appropriate mechanisms to restore confidence in the global economy.