The Standard Chartered Company, which specializes in financial and banking services, issued a report highlighting the economic outlook in the Middle East region during the year 2021, after a difficult year witnessed by world economies following the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The report reflects expectations of a relatively slow recovery in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan, by up to 2% in 2021, as the report says that Egypt will be the fastest growing in the region among the countries included in the report.

Expectations indicate that Lebanon will witness a double-digit contraction in 2021. As for oil-producing countries, continued production restrictions are likely to reduce growth prospects, in addition to a continued decline in the performance of the oil sector, according to the report.

The report also expects that the introduction of the accelerated vaccine will benefit the economies that depend on tourism the most, including Egypt and the UAE, especially the UAE, which plans to host the Expo 2020 in October 2021.