Illicit financial flows (IFFs) are constantly evolving outpacing detection at every corner. IFFs undermine the rule of law, distort macro-economic stability, and raise severe security complications for the Arab region. These flows constitute substantial leakages to domestic public revenues that could have otherwise been harnessed to finance national and regional efforts devoted to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This publication presents time series comparative statistics and indicators on core areas of economic and social development in ESCWA member countries for 2008. This issue of the Statistical Abstract consists of 11 chapters, each focusing on one of the following: population and labour force, education and illiteracy, health, gender equality, national accounts, energy, industry, transport, foreign trade, financial statistics and prices, and information and communications technology.

This issue disseminates population census data and comparable national data on registered vital events in the ESCWA region, with complementary analysis. To optimize accuracy, data have been checked for consistency against national, regional and international sources and for comparability purposes, rates have been computed using the World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision prepared by the United Nations Population Division.

This study results show that reducing energy subsidy generates a fiscal space for the Tunisian economy. In the first bunch of simulations we supposed that this ‘saved’ amounts are totally directed to the reduction of fiscal deficit. This policy enhances the fiscal sustainability and reduces indebtment but have a negative impact on growth and job creation. The microsimulation approach shows that, after considering all taxes and direct cash transfers and indirect subsidies, the rate of poverty decreases from disposable income to consumable income.