Economy Talk

Gulf economies forecast to shrink ~16%: what does it mean for workers there?

Al Jazeera's coverage of the IMF report led with contractions of 16.7% for Kuwait, 16% for Iraq and 15.6% for Qatar, mainly because of the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. The region as a whole is now forecast to shrink 0.3%, against 1.9% growth projected in April.

Those are enormous numbers. Millions of workers in the Gulf come from South Asia, the Philippines, East Africa, and a lot of families back home depend on what they send. Does anyone here have family working there, and are they seeing it yet? I'd genuinely like to understand what this looks like beyond the headline.