predictable for business. the current president and this discussion of a transition to his son, this was the plan for the business community investing in the market of 80 million consumers with growth of 5% to 6% and now as we discussed on richard s show last night, you speak to some bankers saying it s a coin toss. we don t know which way it will go. today will be an indicator of the public unrest and the public feeling well beyond cairo. people coming from the suburbs on this friday. a lot to talk about and following world business today we will have the central bank governor of saudi arabia, tony blair and a full panel of business leaders looking at egypt, tunisia and the middle east and north africa. charles? john, thank you very much. john defterios, live there in davos, of course. in davos this week, the focus on organizers call the new reality, that s the name of the annual meeting. for the airline industry, could
the start of 2011 has been a rocky one in the middle east. it was debated both in riyadh and here in davos. high unemployment and rising food prices have changed the game and let s not forget about palestine and lebanon. i sat down with the central bank governor of the region s largest economy, saudi arabia. we talked about managing through these issues. this is not the first problem that arises in our region. there was the iran-iraq war. there was the invasion of kuwait. there was the liberation of kuwait. there was the invasion of iraq. we have had more than our fair share of problems but if you watch what happened to the saudi economy and its stability, continuing to grow, continuing to address all of the needs of its population and its investors, we have been doing very well. so to be clear, you don t see a spillover of the events of north africa reaching in?
by the japanese delegation at davos. for example, from asia, it is the south koreans and chinese dominating even though there s not a lot chinese government delegations but i would put it in another category right now, that is, this financial repression discussion within the g-7 of a long period of sluggish growth that lost decade we have talked about in japan over the last ten years likely to continue with the debt levels we see both in the u.s. and europe. well, here in davos, i have been able to pry peter vosser away to talk about the direction of the energy and oil sector. he is the chief executive officer of royal dutch shell. i started by asking him something that s a big conversation in the halls of davos this year, the so-called new normal with prices around $90 a barrel. there will be a lot of supply coming on next few years. we have still opec production shut in but on the other side, you are right.
we ll see more consolidation this year as the survival strategy where a smaller or struggling airline can slot into a bigger family. what s really exciting is we have now three big, heavyweights in europe. lufthansa, the largest, of course, sweeping up the smaller carriers that it can. air france, klm and ba with i beer yeah to increase the scale and muscle. you need to have fewer, bigger airlines if the aviation industry is going to be in sensible shape for the future. reporter: after a two-year hiatus, there is optimism that airline operating cash flows will come full circle. and get back to pre-crisis levels by the third quarter. with passenger demand steadily rising, this may be the break the industry s been hoping for. cnn, london. and that s it from davos for
people attending the world economic forum here in davos, switzerland, are watching the huge protests. demonstrations appear to be about economics. millions of young people are without work, and therefore, right now without hope. what s the prospect for foreign investment and reform to encourage jobs and growth in the future? i m joined by director of the middle east and central asia for the international monetary fund. thank you for joining us. thank you, john. i want an honest assessment. even a personal assessment of what you see unfolding right now in north africa. you have been a proponent of reforms for years, asking to reform quickly, strublcturally r job growth here. is that the reason it s moving so fast? i think the condition of each country is different, complicated. i think the common feature running through them is in all of these countries growth has