The World Bank urged countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region on Saturday to deepen structural reforms to sustain high economic growth accompanied by strong job creation and declining unemployment in recent years.

According to a World Bank MENA region office new report that looks into economic trends and prospects for the region, the regional economy grew 6.3 percent last year, compared to an average of 3.6 percent annual growth during the 1990s.

Driven by high oil prices, economic recovery in Europe and reforms that are broadly going in the right direction, the region witnessed a fourth year in a row of robust growth performance, which generated many jobs, primarily by the private sector as public employment slows down, said the report posted on the regional office's website.

"Countries in the MENA region need to remove the remaining barriers that hinder the business environment for the private sector in order to maintain growth, increase private investment and generate more jobs," said Daniela Gressani, World Bank Vice President for the MENA region.

According to the statistics, job creation in the MENA region grew at 4.5 percent per annum in 2000-2005, the strongest rate among developing regions, the report noted.

However, productivity remains a concern and women are still less successful than men in finding jobs, it added.

"Too many jobs are still being created in sectors with low or declining productivity," said Carlos Silva-Jauregui, Lead Economist and principal author of the report.

Mustapha K. Nabli, Chief Economist of the MENA region, noted that there is evidence of reform progress in trade, business environment and governance in the region while the overall business climate remains challenging for doing business, calling for difficult structural reforms required to balance growth with labor productivity and job creation.