The Arab Spring unrest of 2011 has cost the region's economies an estimated $614 billion of growth because of regime change, continuing conflict and falling oil prices, a United Nations agency said on Thursday.
The figure from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), equivalent to 6 percent of GDP up to the end of last year, is based on growth projections made before the uprisings that toppled four leaders and mired Yemen, Syria and Libya in war. It is the first estimate of its kind by a global economic body.
In its sixth year of conflict, Syria alone has suffered GDP and capital losses of $259 billion since 2011, according to estimates from the National Agenda for the Future of Syria, another U.N. program.
The number of refugees globally topped 60 million by end-2015, which is more than any point since WWII. On the regional level, there are 7.6 million Syrians displaced internally, and over 4 million externally, while in Yemen, there are 130,000 internally displaced, with several who fled abroad as well. By end of 2015, the number of internally displaced persons in Libya reached 434,000. On this note, Europe has seen an increase of 74.3% in refugee inflows, while Turkey is the largest refugee host (1.6 million Syrian refugees by end-2014), and Lebanon hosts most refugees per capita (25%). The region knows persistent unemployment, particularly among women and the young, which leads to the type of frustration and unrest that was seen in 2011.
Mohamed el Moctar Mohamed el Hacene, ESCWA's Economic Development director, said the region needed more financial support from the international community: "We have seen in Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Balkans the support they got in order to recover after conflict. We have not seen so far such support occurring for the Arab region," el Hacene said.