Policy Challenges in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

Footnotes

1. See also El-Erian (1996) and IMF (1995).
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2. See Goldin, Knudsen, and van der Mensbrugghe (1993); and Chabrier, El-Erian, and Moalla-Fetini (1995).
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3. See Azzam (1995a) and El-Erian and Kumar (1995).
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4. By some estimates, private capital flows to the GCC countries have comprised 1-2 percent of total capital flows to all developing countries. See Bates (1994) and Hovaguimian (1994).
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5. See Fischer, Rodrik, and Tuma (1993).
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6. Adjustment and reform policies in the GCC countries are also discussed by Azzam (1995b).
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7. Employment policies are discussed in more detail below.
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8. Although in some other oil producing countries the share of non-oil revenue to GDP is comparable to that of GCC countries (e.g., about 9 percent in Indonesia and Iran), the average revenue to GDP ratio in upper middle income developing countries is about 27 percent.
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9. Under the planned GCC tariff harmonization, rates would be reduced to a range of 4-8 percent for most imports. Currently, with a uniform tariff rate of 4 percent, only the U.A.E. is in that range.
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10. Investment and growth policies and issues related to human resource development are discussed in World Bank (1995a).
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11. As reported by Azzam (1995b), total capitalization in the GCC markets in 1994 was about US$67 billion, with Saudi Arabia accounting for 57 percent of the total. Market capitalization in the GCC was equivalent to 35 percent of total GDP, compared to 50 percent in other developing countries.
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12. See Azzam (1995a) for a review of capital markets of the GCC countries.
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13. According to Ali (1995), the share of foreign workers in total labor force in the GCC countries varies from 40 percent in Bahrain to 83 percent in Kuwait.
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14. See van den Boogaerde (1991).
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