Oclock. I am sequence question these days its hard to filter out the noise and keep track of whats really important the bottom line tackles the big issues that. States its people its economy and the way it deals with the rest of the world the bottom line. You see right. Now this is counting the cost on aljazeera your look at the world of business and economics this week as Oil Prices Slump economies shrink and austerity kicks in is this the end of the middle easts or oil rush also this week south africas unemployment hit a record high before the pandemic whats gone wrong for an economy that emerged from the 2008 financial crisis in a strong position. When you try to reinvent the wheel but turns out you may simply be the Worlds Largest taxi firm is this the end of the gig economy into fights and labor laws and courts around the world. All the commies are moving away from fossil fuels right now being an Oil Producing nation is a tricky proposition burning through money set aside for a rainy day and borrowing money from International Investors to make sure you can pay your bills its also a time many Big Oil Companies are thinking about leaving more oil in the ground many countries of failed to wean themselves off Oil Struggling to diversify their economies oil revenues in the middle east and north africa fell from over one trillion dollars in 2012 to 575000000000 and 2019 thats according to the i. M. F. And this year middle east producers are expected 270000000000. 00 less in oil revenue at the same time. Middle east oil exporting economies are expected to contract 7. 3 percent just as an example the biggest economy saudi arabia is predicted to have a budget deficit of 112000000000 dollars this year which is a record according to saudi vestment group the government has tripled value added tax from 5 percent to 15 percent and has cut its cost of living allowance for state employees from june of this year that amounted to about 2 167. 00 a month for 2 thirds of the countrys employees still saudi finance minister Mohammad Dahlan says the kingdom may have to borrow 60000000000. 00 to cover the huge budget deficit saudi arabia isnt the only country struggling while prices trading around 40. 00 a barrel that means countries like algeria a stretch to say the least it needs oil at 157. 00 a barrel just to make ends meet the only nation that can balance its budget at 40. 00 is qatar. So can the readily see the writing on the wall an end to the age of oil is coming well there is hunter castro met with jihad as it were in washington d. C. He is the director of the middle east and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary fund she began by asking him on middle east Oil Exporters doing enough to diversify. Well diversification has different meanings you have the fiscal diversification and countries in the have already started that with the introduction of the value added tax as well as also other fiscal measures some are still preparing and they are in process of doing this we encourage them to accelerate that there is also the case of. d vision 2030 and other medium term programs government has already started to use them and the 3rd level of diversification is the diversification of economic enablers or i would say a driver for growth and technology for example is one area promoting and developing is also another avenue where countries in the last few years have introduced certain number of programs but we have also said there is a long process and this process had made it more difficult with the coverage we think that Going Forward what is important is to accelerate investment in technology have an environmental led growth and also improve Business Environment and those 3 elements with investing in education investing in health care will allow those countries to have a healthy and strong diversification programs what are the hurdles for a diversification why is it such a long process because you are in fact investing in a long cycle you need to have the enablers for that Human Capital is an important dimension and it takes time to do this you need to adjust some of your. Laws labor laws and also especially if youre investing in start ups. This takes time for those new ventures to grow but those are the steps that goes in the right direction and this is has to be done. With improving some of the doing Business Indicators and also investing and. Investment in technology and investment in. Green energy and Green Recovery with this pandemic on knowing prices still at a very low range what are your Growth Prospects for these middle eastern countries. Those 2 shocks led to one of the most severe crisis that beijing has to endure in less than one year and we saw a drop in on Economic Activity that was not seen in the last decades of course governments reacted very rapidly in order to address. Impact on lives and livelihoods by introducing certain number of measures to protect the life of people through social distancing and other health care measures in patterns to that government have also initiated certain number of fiscal and monetary stimulus in order to address them fact of this crisis on livelihood of people on Economic Activity and also in providing liquidity to the Financial System this has had but yet we expect growth this year to be negative on average by more than 5 percent of course its different between countries and or exporting countries where more affected than the oil and porting countries you mention the value added tax thats a new thing for some of these countries how is it being implemented and so far would you say its working to fund these governments as you know there are 3 countries who have already introduced saudi u. A. E. And bahrain. Others are preparing it proved to be simple to implement and their revenue impact. Negatively acceptable it came at a time where the economy was not growing fast and therefore it may have had an impact when it was introduced but this is a step in the right direction it helps diversify the source of revenues it helps also introduce a tax that is neutral sic totally and also it helps create some discipline and a way Public Resources are. Of course this is a step in the right direction but its not the only step that is needed. And then if we do have a 2nd wave of cold in the middle east do you think these economies concern brian and how. Well if the 1st wave showed us that countries where it efficient in managing the 1st wave they have introduced swift strong and stringent measures to protect lives and those who started early were able to open up earlier. And also we saw an investment in the Health Care Infrastructure and this is something that this video use for Going Forward what is going to be important is how to balance between opening up and put acting lives how to make sure that some of the services. Education is an important one delivering Public Services as well as also helping some of the sectors that where hardly hit like dirt is a transportation to to cover and above all is how to help balance to get. Into the new sectors of the economy and then with course we have the Oil Importing countries we have egypt and jordan and lebanon how do you think theyll fare well here i think each country is different of course the drop in oil was used for them on reducing the cost of energy but on the other hand the reminiscences investment flows and tourism flows went down each country has its own i would say framework off actions that is needed Going Forward countries who have introduced reforms like egypt were able to addressing the impact of the keep the economy functioning others need like lebanon on. A stronger form agenda in order to restore confidence and address one of the most severe crisis that lebanon has endured over the last decades 11 on does have a new government do you have confidence that this government is capable of resolving the bank crisis and digging lebanon out of debt and what role do you see the i. M. F. Playing in achieving. As you know the i. M. F. Is. It is helping lebanon and giving these people and we are now looking forward for the formation of the government to engage again with lebanon with the saudi peace and order to see what are the 4 programs and how the fund can. Thank you very much for joining us thank you. South africa could be heading toward a debt crisis if it doesnt rain in its spending right now thats a difficult proposition for a nation that needs every penny to combat the pandemic the country has already agreed to a loan of more than 4000000000. 00 from the International Monetary fund and as is the case with all the ones from the lender of last resort it comes with strings the biggest string of all is a debt to anchor thats like a promise not to increased it to unmanageable levels when it plans its budget if it doesnt rain in spending it could soar to 140 percent of g. D. P. By the end of the decade this year debts could rise to 90 percent of g. D. P. That you would dash the more money you pay in Interest Payments which means there isnt enough money for services or help to create drops with unemployment running at more than 30 percent the country is also grappling with another problem corruption under former president jacob zuma his rule of 9 years almost 30000000000. 00 was allegedly new shit from the stage thats according to government estimates that money right now would be very useful as unleashes a much needed 30000000000. 00 Stimulus Program to combat the covert 19 economic crisis. Well joining me now from johannesburg islam kenya patrick monday even kenya is a seeing electra at the johannesburg based school of economics and finance university of the witwatersrand thank you for your time going into the Global Financial crisis in 2008 south africa had recorded a Budget Surplus it came out with a strong Balance Sheet now its on the verge of a debt crisis what went wrong in those he is a software guy had built a half hour to offset the new craze is that he concedes unfortunately for the offer to go because his meds and the golden political change with zuma together with the left led by the Congress Party especially a function of the n. C. As well as the huge who are stuck in big and therefore decided to lament a state led driven program under the new govt have and in the process also destroyed and the pit posed institutions such as the percentage illiterate as well as s. So easy for president if huge where was it peach on and the rest of those around with science but it wasnt all just corruption though i mean can we really put it all down to that misappropriation aware that other factors at play. There are the feds tons victimizes at balaklava new to 7 big he also did destroyed the capability of the state so this state was shipped out of kuwait believe it so what we saw was that not only was corruption a part of code project but indeed was only saw a destroying of some of the capability that had been built by the black government says 994 will therefore be so called ups of institutions from local levon where there have been 70 to one for stressed because the state cannot meet i walked up to get water you cannot to me said these and refused to give already so its been a crisis that was human made with his zuma fiction so this kind of corruption puppet list and incapable state as well as a very difficult period to our own destruction of eskom where this economy was beautiful mining in any cheese and eskom in my ability to give our energy. And wesson and. The economy and together with the corruption sales roomies see that because it double edged sword to with there was corruption and as a lesson on one side on the other side there was just a collapse of Institution Due to state in a couple city and lack of credibility and then of course we have unemployment which has soared to 30 percent but that was going up before the coronavirus pandemic taking rat into account where do you see the country headed. The country is facing huge challenges we expect with a cover of 19 and implements it off in a couple who should be about 40 percent which probably will be among the highest among leading Income Countries and many people have been pushed into formality and in the process often for muddy to their own little pathologies because if youre going to bloods and they cannot scrape through crime and other forms of violence increases that is why is that offer guys one of the high pam arrayed countries but also very violent countries in the way. As a right to the government has to introduce a debt anchor as part of the i. M. F. Program what else is required by the i. M. F. And how is the country going to go making that a crime of the day m. F. Expect south africa to undergo huge structural Economic Reforms as specific to the existing support of state owned enterprises who all of them need cash injection from eskom today newly built south africa know is that this digital can do to the South African Broadcasting Corporation so thats one area the 2nd is around telecommunication where this 8 has kept the spectrum and hence the difficulty of us communicating this interview and 3rd is about huge concentration in the economy at large in areas where the stage is dominant this is transporting logistic this is power the Energy Generation where they stayed true as countries is rid of government and so these reforms require the state to play and maybe an environment in that process hopefully allow private sector to come in and 5 and succeeds however we know that because of the state having. This is a sense its unlikely to move at that pace if you like to because of this that interests such as cage unknowns and the communist therefore i think theres petitions all that i am and to encompass the awesome board by putting dead thousands of votes that are done weve found itself fading because hes going to lead to mustique action and evolved because its been seen by brought us as austerity so i dont i dont that i am ever will find this process is being met by the southern government who have spent 7 government to get people interested as an end up having to review and up to a bigger such an Adjustment Program because if you change sept those changes reach the i. M. F. Expects all of them with the loan debt given as a focus on debian there as in the possums ok the 30000000000. 00 stimulus package proposed by the government what impact if any do you think that will have on the economy. Its been a very sad story a boat that puck a just that it belonged remember that shouldnt be your of that theyd be your was meant to be in got on de baets by the government and the South African design of bank and to date only about 15 per cent of that has been spent therefore meaning that many corporations have been ever left on whom theyve called ups theyve been destroyed and sick in the uk of that i think to be learned not to mention was going to be part of the of the total if i meant that i would mention that for one to be going to come from dime ads which have just come in now so its not been his best year and others. Come from the budget lines which already been announced in february and you know that to those theyve been kept because in the process that i was a lovely guy has reported that theres been a huge corruption where money meant for has said this has been kept shut and we spend. A 4 dead because that corruption has led to many people dying sloth you got a little competitive thames suffer the guy has done fade in terms of you to cause each however the fed that the money meant to spend went to Court Options and peoples pockets than protection protect you could mend and other is a disaster for someone who can well have made it there for time thank you so much for your comment by truck monday appreciate it thank you so much thank you the u. K. Supreme court is hearing a case that could bring an end to the socalled big economy they pale was brought by after dr has won the right to be recognised as workers and not as independent contractors who has argued that its a Technology Company that connects drivers and riders in a separate case in california and drive a lift have been ordered by. Jobs to classify drivers as employees its just one of many cases globally drivers and unions claim millions of people in the good economy have insecure contracts that dont entitle them to sick and holiday pay many are unable to save for retirement because of the nature of the work. But doing me in now from london by skype his neo carbery neil is the chief executive officer of the recruitment and Employment Confederation in the u. K. Thanks for your time neil his Business Model could not just be damaged but appended ready if the court rules against him saying yes actually drive is our employees what side of the debate do you come down on especially considering i mean if this Business Model changes who knows what it will mean the size of the company its profits its number of drives so well look thank you its pleasure to join you i think this is a really important case because what we have here is a Business Leader who are doing something new an app based. Right platform but of course essentially in many ways it