Publication: Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee
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2016-09-19
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2016-09-14
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The Palestinian economic outlook is worrying: recovering slowly from the recession of 2014, the per capita income growth has almost stagnated and projected growth levels will not support an improvement in living standards. Despite impressive fiscal consolidation efforts over the years, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) fiscal situation remains fragile with a US$600 million financing gap projected for 2016. The main body of the report is organized in two chapters. Chapter II focuses on recent developments in the real, fiscal and banking sectors while providing a near term outlook that highlights critical challenges facing the Palestinian economy. In view of the need for far-reaching reform, Chapter III presents a stock take of World Bank recommendations to the AHLC meeting over the years, discusses the state of the issues, and suggests a way forward.
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“World Bank. 2016. Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25072 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-09-27)The main body of the report is organized in two chapters with one annex. Chapter one focuses on recent economic developments in the real, fiscal and banking sectors, while providing a near term outlook that highlights critical challenges facing the Palestinian economy. Chapter two provided input on a vision for Gaza development including performance of the Gaza economy, living standards of the people of Gaza and strategy for Gaza development. It explores the nature of the decline of the Gazan economy and identifies the needs going forward. The annex assesses the status of the World Bank recommendations to the AHLC meeting over the years. The annex discusses fiscal sustainability, economic development and Gaza reconstruction and recovery.Publication Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-11-17)The Palestinian economy has started its recovery in 2021 as COVID-related (coronavirus) measures have been eased, but sustainable sources of growth going forward remain limited. Given the decline in the daily number of new COVID-19 cases, lockdowns have been significantly eased in 2021. This combined with the pickup of the vaccination campaign allowed consumer confidence to slowly pick up and business activity to gradually rebound. The economy is estimated to have grown by 5.4 percent, in real terms, in the first half (H1) of 2021, year-on-year. The improved economic performance was fully driven by the West Bank economy while Gaza’s economy remained almost stagnant in H1 2021 due to the 11-day conflict in May. Growth is expected to further pick up throughout the remainder of the year and reach 6 percent in 2021 as the West Bank economy continues to regain more of what was lost during 2020 and with the implementation of some Israeli confidence building measures supporting economic activity and facilitating reconstruction in Gaza. In the following years, growth is expected to hover around 3 percent as the low base effect weakens and as sources of growth remain limited given the ongoing restrictions on movement, access and trade. Unemployment remained stubbornly high in 2021, mainly driven by Gaza. The unemployment rate in the Palestinian territories reached 26.4 percent in the second quarter of 2021: 16.9 percent in the West Bank and 44.7 percent in Gaza, reflecting the particularly difficult economic situation in the Strip due to the effect of the 11-day conflict and the ongoing restrictions. 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It also presents a mix of policies that should ensure sustainable development of the Gaza strip and put an end to human suffering therein. The report also contains an annex which provides an overview of progress in meeting the pledges made for Gazas reconstruction at the October 2014 Cairo Conference. Although the connection between the chapters of this report may not be obvious as they treat a diverse set of issues facing the Palestinian economy and public finances, together they provide insights into key policy and institutional development actions and reforms, which need to be taken by the Palestinian Authority, the Government of Israel, and the donor community to reverse the recent and worrisome slowdown in economic growth, to enable effective and efficient management of public finances in order to avoid a dangerous fiscal crisis and to support inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction.Publication Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-09-26)After a steady improvement in the fiscal position over the past decade, the standoff over clearance revenues has severely constrained the PA budget, leading to a significant expansion in expenditure arrears. 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Chapter II looks at the impact of dual use restrictions on specific sectors in both the West Bank and Gazan economies and makes short and long run recommendations that would allow more activity and job creation. Annex 1 assesses the status of the World Bank recommendations to the AHLC meeting over the years, while Annex 2 has details of the dual use restrictions that are currently in place.
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