Most oil exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are in danger of running fiscal deficits from 2013, an International Monetary Fund official said Tuesday.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) regional director Masood Ahmed said 2012 was a year of solid growth for MENA oil exporting nations "as gross domestic product growth reached 5.7 percent year on year."

However, GDP growth is expected to fall to 3 percent in 2013, " because of subdued global oil demand, and in the first quarter this year oil exports have been declining," said Ahmed at this year's IMF spring briefing on MENA economic prospects.

Moreover, frequent sabotage attacks from different groups on oil pipelines and oil production facilities in Libya, Egypt, Iraq and Yemen would increase uncertainty; and the deterioration of security in these countries could affect hydrocarbon export volumes in short term, according to the IMF official.

In addition, the ongoing euro zone debt crisis would trigger a loss of about half a percent in the GDP of oil exporters in the region in 2013 and 2014.

Due to the oil production decline, the current account surpluses in the oil exporting countries would decline to 370 billion US dollars this year from 440 billion dollars in 2012.

Ahmed said MENA oil exporters had to further strengthen their fiscal and external positions in order to reduce their vulnerability to potential material oil price decline.