This book aims to trace and point out the recent developments occurred in the Arab Economy in the last two decades, including trends toward integration, liberalisation, and globalisation. This book indicates the most recent changes in the Arab Financial Institutions including banks, insurance companies, pension funds and other financial institutions. There is also the discussion of issues in market stability and efficiency in the light of new Arab environment of stock trading. This book is a comprehensive text covering the Arab Financial Sector.
Although Islamic finance is one of the fastest growing segments of emerging global financial markets, its concepts are not fully exploited especially in the areas of economic development, inclusion, access to finance, and public policy. This volume is to improve understanding of the perspective of Islamic finance on economic development, social and economic justice, human welfare, and economic growth.
Globalization—the intensification of international trade and finance linkages underpinned by economic liberalization and technological change—presents both challenges and opportunities to Arab countries. After reviewing this region’s disappointing performance in integration and growth, this paper analyzes the empirical relationship between the two and concludes that integration is necessary if high growth rates are to be attained and the region is not to become marginalized. It then identifies the main obstacles to the integration of Arab countries into the world economy and reviews recent progress in overcoming them. On this basis, the paper derives some policy prescriptions.
This paper provides an economic overview of the very diverse countries within the large geographical area. It highlights the economic challenges and opportunities facing the MENA region, the policies pursued by the countries in the region, and the outlook for the external environment. The paper concludes with eight policy recommendations.
This volume provides a comprehensive study of Turkey’s financial transformation into one of the most dynamic, if not trouble-free, emerging capitalisms. While this financial evolution has underwritten Turkey’s dramatic economic growth, it has done so without ameliorating the persistently exploitative and unequal social structures that characterize neoliberalism today. This edited volume, written by an interdisciplinary range of political economists, critically examines Turkey’s financial transformation, contributing to debates on the nature of peripheral financialization. Eschewing economistic interpretations, The Political Economy of Financial Transformation in Turkey underscores both the quantitative significance of exponential growth in financial flows and investments, and the qualitative importance of the state’s institutional restructuring around financial imperatives. The book presents today’s reality as historically rooted. By understanding the choices made under the new Republic (from 1923 onwards), one can better locate the changes launched as a newly liberalizing society (since 1980). Likewise, the decisions made in response to Turkey’s 2001 financial crisis spurred a tectonic break in state–market–society financial relations. The waves of change have reached far and wide: from corporate strategies of accumulation and growth to small- and medium-sized enterprises’ strategies of financial survival; from how finance has penetrated the provisioning of housing to how households have become financialized. Put together, one grasps the complexity and historicity of the power of contemporary finance. One also sees that the changes made have not been class-neutral, but have entailed elevating the interests of major capital groups, particularly financial capital, above the interests of the poor and workers in Turkey. Nor are these changes constrained to its national borders, as what transpires domestically contributes to the making of a financialized world market. Through this ‘Made in Turkey’ approach the contributions in this volume thus challenge dominant understandings of financialization, which are derived from the advanced capitalisms, by sharing the specificity of emerging capitalisms such as Turkey.
This title was first published in 2002. In 2000, a major international conference was organized by the Arab Planning Institute to identify, analyze and compare development challenges facing Arab countries at the dawn of the new millennium. An interdisciplinary team of scholars were brought together from the fields of regional science, development studies, economics, business and government policy and together they addressed global, regional and domestic challenges and their impact on the Arab region. This volume brings together the best papers presented at this conference. In doing so, it offers up-to-date insights into, and a clearer understanding of this region. It highlights issues including: economic and social implications of globalization; strategic alliances; the implications for Arab countries of emerging technological patterns; the impact of the European Monetary Union and the euro; Arab regional integration; education; and the development of individual Arab country's economies.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an economically diverse region. Despite undertaking economic reforms in many countries, and having considerable success in avoiding crises and achieving macroeconomic stability, the region’s economic performance in the past 30 years has been below potential. This paper takes stock of the region’s relatively weak performance, explores the reasons for this out come, and proposes an agenda for urgent reforms.
The changing political situation in the Middle East poses challenges for the economies of the region, and some see none more vulnerable to collapse than Saudi Arabia's. Yet as this study demonstrates, the fundamentals of the Kingdom's economy are relatively robust, as over three quarters of GDP is accounted for by the non-oil sector, and impressive modern industries have been established, notably in petrochemicals. The financial system functions well, and despite substantial government debts, there is low inflation and currency stability. The private sector increasingly drives the economy, although job creation has been insufficient to prevent rising youth unemployment. The development challenges Saudi Arabia faces are similar to those of other middle-income countries, and three decades of diversification have made the economy less unique than it was in the oil boom years of the 1970s.
Well-considered answers to the many questions raised by the situation in Iraq, past and present, are rare. This first comprehensive, thematically organised, bibliography devoted to Iraq is based on the full Index Islamicus database and is drawn from a wide variety of European-language journals and books. Featuring an extensive introduction to the subject and its literature by Peter Sluglett, this bibliography will help readers to find their way through the massive secondary literature now available. Following the pattern established by the Index Islamicus, both journal articles and book publications are included, as well as important internet resources. The editors have taken care to add much new material to bring its coverage up to date, and supplement the previously published volumes, while the most important and/or influential publications are conveniently highlighted in the introduction. An indispensable gateway for all those with a more than superficial interest in what is, and what has been, happening in this nation so much the focus of attention today.
