Economic Liberalization in North Africa

Abstract

North African countries have been trying to reform and liberalize their economies. In spite of its dramatic start in the mid-1980s with the help of IMF, however, privatization and rationalization of public sector enterprises, which is considered as the core of economic liberalization, have faced significant obstacles. Many of these obstacles derived from the nature of politics. Public enterprises also has an important role to play as a tool to generate improved equity in this region. Therefore, political reform is a necessary condition of change if economic liberalization is to contribute to economic development in North African Arab countries.