Video | 13 Mar 2025
Scott Livermore
Chief Economist, Oxford Economics Middle East, and Managing Director
Egypt’s headline inflation tumbled to 12.8% in February from 24% in January, falling to a three-year low. The sharp decline was mostly driven by base effects, effective economic reforms, and a very tight monetary policy stance over the past year. With real interest rates climbing above 14%, the central bank now has ample space to start monetary easing, and we anticipate a 300bps rate cut in April.
Fitch affirmed Kuwait’s ‘AA-‘ sovereign credit rating with a stable outlook, citing its solid net foreign assets, robust external balance sheets, and low public debt. This aligns with our optimism about Kuwait’s fiscal sustainability. We see a wider fiscal deficit this year given our lower oil price forecast, but think we’re nearing the approval of the long-awaited debt law to unlock capital for Kuwait Vision 2035, alongside measures to bolster non-oil revenues.
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Matthew Pritchard
Head of Business Development, Middle East
+971 50 867 3560
Matthew heads-up the subscriptions sales team in the Middle East and is responsible for strategic and commercial activities across the region. He joined the team in 2021 and is based in our Dubai office. Prior to joining Oxford Economics, Matthew was a Sales Director at Fitch Solutions covering business development across the Middle East having moved to Dubai from London to help set-up their UAE office in 2015. Matthew holds a Master’s degree in Management (with a speciality in International Business) and a Batchelor’s degree in Philosophy, both from the University of Sheffield.
Scott Livermore
Chief Economist, Oxford Economics Middle East, and Managing Director
+971 504 039 455
Scott Livermore is the Chief Economist of Oxford Economics Middle East and based in Oxford’s Dubai office. He is also Managing Director of Consultancy in the Middle East and Asia, as well as a member of Oxford Economics’ Senior Management Team. Scott leads many of the major projects in the GCC and Asia which have recently included capacity building, macroeconomic modelling, and policy impact assessment engagements for government institutions in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman, and IFRS 9 and Stress Testing engagements in Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
After completing a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, and an MSc in Economics at University College London, Scott joined Oxford Economic Forecasting in 1997. During his initial five years at OEF, he worked as a country analyst for a number of European countries and participated in numerous consultancy projects for a variety of international organisations, governments and multinational companies using both Oxford Economics’ Global Economic Model and bespoke economic models.
Scott rejoined Oxford Economics in 2005 as a senior economist after spending two years at the Ministry of Finance in the Slovak Republic assisting with the government’s medium-term macroeconomic framework and developing the analytical capacity of the ministry to prepare such forecasts. He has also held the positions of Managing Director of Macro and Industry Services, Managing Director of Macro Consulting, and COO of Oxford Economics USA.
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