Fitch Group’s BMI Research sees further political instability in the cards for the MENA countries if they do not invest in labor-intensive infrastructure projects or make necessary reforms to employment law — measures it deems necessary to secure employment over the coming 10 years for a large generation of youth now entering the workforce. The flipside to this is that the region may be entering the cusp of a “demographic dividend” if its countries succeed, with the benefit of significantly boosting economic productivity. BMI sees Egypt and Iraq as among the MENA countries most at risk of failing to absorb the mass of youth labor which will hit the job market in the coming decade.

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