What Lessons did Arab Countries Learn From the Recent Financial Crisis?

The financial crisis that began in the United States in 2008 quickly spread across Europe and eventually affected all global economic activity and financial systems.The Arab World was also hit by the global financial crisis, but the impact varied among its countries by the nature and structure of its economies and the degree of openness to global markets. This paper captures the impact of the global financial crisis on Arab economies, its main transmission channels and what lessons did Arab governments draw from it. In order to accomplish this purpose we first try to identify the transmission channels of the crisis and the implications on Arab economies and then we propose to find out what lessons could Arab political and economic decision makers draw from what Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal reserve called ” the worst financial crisis in global history, including the Great Depression”[3]. Being a descriptive study above all, the research paper is based on the analysis and critical evaluation of the available literature (literature review).