Infrastructure spend in Middle East 'to kickstart economic boom'

Africa and the Middle East are set to spend billions on infrastructure which could trigger an economic boom, according to Oliver Bell, manager of the T. Rowe Price Middle East & Africa Equity fund.

With these regions seeing huge population growth, the pressure is on to improve existing facilities, he said. The population of Saudi Arabia, for example, has exploded from four million people to 26 million since the 1970s. The impact for corporates could be huge. For example, the biggest overhead for a bank in Nigeria is diesel – each branch must have its own generator. Once infra-structure improves, businesses will be better able to serve their growing customer base. “Simple things will have an economic snowball effect once they are fixed. We are starting to move in that directio...