MENA Economic Update

This book looks specifically at how the region’s ill-prepared health systems hampered the response to the pandemic. MENA was one of the only regions in the developing world where government expenditure as a share of GDP increased during the decade prior to the pandemic, rising from 16% to 18% 2009 and 2019. This legacy of large public sector and high public debt crowded out investments in public health, which weighed on the ability to respond to the health crisis. Going forward, cuntries will have to pay more attention to timely public health data and overcome a historic underinvestment in vital public health systems.