ZUBAIR IQBAL

E-mail: zubair.iqbal45@gmail.com
Phone: Home: (301) 983-0137, Cell: (240) 441-1725
Address: 10409 Crossing Creek Road, Potomac, MD 20854
Current Position: Scholar, Middle East Institute, Washington DC.
Nationality: Pakistan; US permanent Resident

Education
1964: B.A. (Honors), Punjab University, Pakistan
1965: M.A., Economics, Punjab University, Pakistan
1971: Ph.D., International Economics and Finance, Michigan State University, USA
Professional Experience

After retiring from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2007 as Assistant Director,
I have been associated as a scholar with the Middle East Institute, a Washington DC think
tank on Middle Eastern affairs. While at the IMF(1972-2007), my primary focus was on:
1. Development of economic policies and strategies for economic adjustment to
internal and external shocks in member countries;
2. Policy advice to member countries, spanning the Middle East, Latin America, Asia,
and Africa;
3. Development of programs for training of officials from member countries in
macroeconomic policy formulation and implementation;
4. Management of country divisions and led country and use of IMF resources
missions; and
5. Research on a wide variety of issues including, growth and adjustment, external
economic assistance to developing countries, global oil markets and strategy, Islamic
banking and finance, financial sector surveillance strategies, and multilateral trade
policy issues.

Missions

Led Article IV consultation, use of Fund resources, and training missions to a large
number of countries including, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Syria, Jordan, Macedonia, Korea, Yemen, and
Pakistan. Participated in over 200 missions to 54 countries.

Prepared and implemented the IMF strategy for the post-conflict recovery of
Afghanistan which served as one of the early initiatives toward post-conflict cases.
Represented the IMF in the early donor conferences on Afghanistan.

Represented the IMF at the GATT (later WTO) Committee on Balance of Payments
Restrictions.

Participated in the IMF missions to a number of industrial countries and regional

organizations to help develop Funds policy toward trade restrictions.

Represented the IMF at conferences including on debt sustainability,

macroeconomic policy imperatives for low income countries, trade policy, and debt
sustainability under the Paris Club.
Research

Supervised/guided staff in extensive research in a variety of areas including

exchange rate policy, monetary and fiscal policy nexus, regional integrationin
particular among GCC countriesIslamic banking and finance, trade policy,
macroeconomic modeling for adjustment programming and sustainable growth,
external debt sustainability, capital flows and development assistance, exchange
arrangements, and monetary unions. These activities led to a large number of
publications, some of which are listed below.
Publications

Articles

Published over 50 articles in a number of Fund and outside publications on the

generalized system of preferences, Islamic banking, financial sector development
and regulation, monetary and fiscal policy nexus for economic development and
stability, trade policy and exchange rate interaction, determinants of monetary
union, development financing and debt sustainability, and GCC.

Books

Trade Policy Developments in Industrial Countries (1981 and 1982), IMF

Occasional Papers No. 5 and 16 (co-author).

Islamic Banking (1987), IMF Occasional Paper No. 47 (co-author).

Public Finance in Islam (1990), Readers Publishers.

External Finance and Low-Income Countries (1997), IMF (editor).

Trade Reform and Regional Integration in Africa (1998), IMF (editor).

Macroeconomic Issues and Policies in the Middle East and North Africa (2001),
IMF (editor).

GCC Countries: From Oil Dependence to Diversification (2003), IMF.

Arab Spring: Economic Determinants of Revolt and Outlook (Forthcoming).

Post-IMF.
As a scholar at the Middle East Institute (MEI), I have focused on research and speaking
engagements on the economic and political developments in the Middle East, North
Africa, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. I have published several articles in the MEI blog and
other journals and am presently working on a book on the on-going democratic revolt in
the Arab World. I also lecture at the US State Departments Foreign Policy Institute on
South Asia.
Finally, I provide expert commentary on the region on the BBC, Voice of America, and
the Bloomberg television and radio, besides speaking to newspapers on behalf of the MEI
on regional matters.