Climate Disasters Threaten Middle East’s Economic Growth - IMF

By Staff, Agencies

The International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva warned that climate disasters are becoming more severe and frequent in the Middle East and Central Asia, which presents a “major threat” to economic growth.

“Droughts in north Africa, Somalia and Iran, epidemics and locust infestations in the Horn of Africa, severe floods in the Caucasus and central Asia… the list of disasters is quickly getting longer,” the official cautioned in a speech prepared for the World Government Summit in Dubai.

She also said that extreme weather events usually reduce an area’s annual economic growth by 1 to 2 percentage points per capita.

Around 7 million people are displaced by these regional climate disasters in an average year, and thousands are also killed in such catastrophes, according to a recent IMF paper.

States in the area also face average costs of $2 billion in physical damage.

In order to address the issue, Georgieva urged countries to adjust their economies by increasing environmentally-friendly investments and called on nations to adopt a strategy of gradually raising carbon prices.

The official also emphasized the importance of including climate adaptation policies as part of a state’s national economic strategies, as bolstering infrastructure against the challenges posed by extreme weather events could help nations avoid economic losses later.