Astana. October 23. Kazakhstan Today - International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates short-term prospects of development of the Near East and Central Asian countries as a whole as favorable, the agency reports referring to the text of the IMF report Prospects of Development of Regional Economy: the Near East and Central Asia. "Rates of economic growth in 2008 in the region of the Near East and Central Asia have remained high ... the ninth year in a row exceeding the rates of world economic growth," IMF report states. "Short-term prospects of development of the Near East and Central Asian countries have been estimated as favorable," the report informs. IMF experts inform that the main problem in the regions of the Near East and Central Asia is inflation, the rates of which considerably exceed average indices of all developing countries and the countries with the developed markets. The authors of the report consider that the present macroeconomic parameters of the countries of the Near East and Central Asia give a possibility for solution of old problems of unemployment and poverty and call upon the governments of the countries of the regions "to improve investment climate, to lower cost of business management, to reduce size of the state sector in economy, to strengthen flexibility of labor market and to carry out reforms of the educational system."