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Paleoeconomy contracted 21% in 4th Q
 The Palestinian economy shrank 21 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 compared with the previous year, suffering from the effects of international sanctions and restricted flow of goods into the Gaza Strip, officials said Sunday. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said most sectors of the economy suffered declines, including manufacturing, education, tourism and health care.Sufian al-Barghouti, the bureau's director for economic statistics, said the steep drop in economic activity was largely the result of international sanctions imposed after Hamas won legislative elections last year and gained control of the government. Up to now, foreign aid has made up about half of the government budget. Don't have actual numbers; however, foreign aid was about $300M in 2005 (all sources) so GDP would have been about $600M. This would imply a loss of about $30M from the 4Q of 2005 to the 4Q of 2006 Posted by: mhw 2007-02-25 |
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