Oussama Safa, Chief of Participation and Social Justice Section at ESCWA said that the civil movement and peoples calls for social justice imposed new political and social contexts in some countries of the Arab region, where it was adopted by some through the drafting of new social contracts, and avoided or even curbed by others through violence.



1. The US Federal Reserve decided to raise its policy interest rate by 0.25 percentage point, by shifting the target band of Federal Funds rate from 0.00-0.25% to 0.25% to 0.50% on the 16 of December. It marked the first change in the US policy interest rate since 2008 and the first hike in policy interest rate since 2006 (See Chart 1).