Current Account Imbalances of Selected Middle Eastern Countries 12+

📓 Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 1,0, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, course: The Middle East in the World Economy, language: English, abstract: Discussions on global economic imbalances and adjustment have become highly valued and popular nowadays. The worldwide financial crisis, European crisis and China's rise to an economic world ower have particularly brought these issues to light. China is thought to boost its exports through an artificial low exchange rate, Germany is accused of profiting from the common European currency and money policy through high competiveness and the USA is blamed for financing its excessive consumption through unsustainable foreign debt. Notable cases are also found in the Middle East. Above all, attention must be paid to the antagonism toward oil exporting and non-oil exporting countries. Their different economic structures are often the primary cause of current account imbalances. Hence, this paper focuses on the examination of two Middle Eastern countries: Lebanon and Saudi-Arabia. Lebanon is a small oil-importing country with a diverse population that experienced a period of intense European influence and which has been regularly confronted with regionalconflicts. Saudi-Arabia is a major regional power and oil-exporting country, whose politics emerge from a strictly conservative Islamic ideology. Primary attention is paid to the current accounts of the two countries. The purpo...