Gulf states aware oil windfall won't last: IMF

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2006

DUBAI (AFP) — Abundant oil-revenue surpluses enjoyed by Gulf countries will not put economic reforms on the back burner as policy makers know high crude prices are only temporary, a top IMF official said.

"The current generation of politicians in these countries think differently. They really do have a view that these oil prices would not last," the head of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department, Mohsin Khan, told AFP in an interview in Dubai.

He said that oil-rich countries in the Gulf region are aware that if they miss the chance to "utilize this period to undertake those reforms and develop the private sector (they) will be back in the 1990s."

Oil-producing countries suffered a sharp drop in their revenues in the 1990s due to record low oil...