Financial inclusion remains a challenge for Arab countries in the Middle East. Only 50 per cent of adults in the region have a financial account, the lowest global score in financial account ownership, the World Bank says.
There are also wide gaps between the Gulf and the rest of the region, while women are disproportionately less likely than men to have accounts.
The gender gap in account ownership is most severe in the region, at 15 percentage points, more than double the average of other upper-middle-income countries.
Financial exclusion forces people into the informal cash economy, limiting their ability to save, invest and protect themselves from economic shocks. By contrast, globally, 78.7 per cent of people aged over 15 have an account with a bank, financial institution, or mobile money provider, up from 50.6 per cent in 2011.
Of the 1.3 billion adults that rema
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