According to a recent report issued by HSBC, the Arab Spring unrest of the past two and half years have resulted in costs amounting to USD800 billion in seven countries until the end of 2013. The bank's research found would have effectively lowered the combined economic output to USD2 trillion from USD2.9 trillion in a four year period.
The Arab Spring resulted in the removal of long standing political leaders in both Egypt and Libya. Other countries covered in the report are Bahrain, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
The HSBC report also included other Gulf states such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who benefited from the unrest, with Saudi Arabia entrenching itself as the hub for regional trade and finance. The report projected the UAE economy would grow by 4.3% for 2013 and 4.6% in 2014. This though would have an effect of pushing the consumer price index by as much as 4.5% in 2014.
The Egyptian economy is expected to grow by 3% for its fiscal year ending June 2014. This, according to HSBC, was an increase from a 2.5% projection because of aid coming in from neighboring Gulf states. On the other hand, Libya's economy would grow by 0.7% according to projections, which is a sharp drop from an initial projection of 15.9% because of strikes besetting crude exports.
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