UN says Palestinian economy shackled to Israel
AFP, Aug 30, 2007
The economy of the Palestinian territories is increasingly tied to Israel as poverty, violence and occupation restrict the prospects for independent growth, a United Nations report said on Thursday.
"The case of occupation and the increasingly tight Israeli measures and closure policies which … restrict the movement of people and goods from, and to and even within the West Bank and Gaza in the past seven years have effectively isolated the Palestinian economy from the rest of the world," said Mahmoud Elkhafif, an official with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
The Palestinian economy has lost one third of its production capacity since 1998 and UNCTAD estimates the cumulative economic costs in terms of potential lost income between 2000 and 2005 stand at 8.4 billion dollars (6.2 billion euros).
Per capita gross national income dropped by 15 percent in 2006, with unemployment around 30 percent, UNCTAD said citing preliminary Palestinian data.
Imports as a percentage of Palestinian GDP rose to 86 percent in 2006, and imports from Israel account for more than 55 percent of the Palestinian trade deficit, according to UNCTAD's annual report on its assistance to the Palestinian people.




