The wave of protests and unrests that swept across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region since 2011 has continued in different forms. In addition to demands for more economic and political inclusion, the protests had been largely sparked by a refusal to any longer tolerate the gross socio-economic inequality perpetuated by long-entrenched “elite” in power.

This paper analyses the patterns of inequality and investigates the effect of income inequality on key societal development, namely economic growth and poverty, in the MENA region. Empirical results show that income inequality reduces economic growth and increases poverty. Other factors having significant negative effect on economic growth in the MENA region include previous growth rate, exchange rate, government consumption expenditure or government burden, initial per capita GDP, inflation, and primary education.