IMF: Donors needed to support West Bank, Gaza recovery

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Thursday 21 May 2015 - 17:35 Makkah mean time-3-8-1436 Washington (IINA) - The International Monetary Fund called Tuesday for more donor aid to support the recovery of the West Bank and Gaza Strip economy, citing an uncertain outlook for the Palestinian territories. The IMF said in a report that the reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip, ravaged by the war between Israel and Hamas that ended last August, “is moving far more slowly than expected.” The economic cost of the 50-day war is estimated at $4 billion for Gaza, the IMF noted, as tens of thousands of homes and business were destroyed and the area was under Israeli and Egyptian blockades. “While notable progress has been made recently with the provision of materials for the repair of individual homes, larger construction projects that are required for a job-creating economic recovery are still pending,” AFP reported quoting the report. According to the IMF, of the $3.5 billion promised for the reconstruction of Gaza at the Cairo Conference in October, only about 27 percent had been disbursed by mid-April. The IMF said the economic outlook for the Palestinian territories is “highly uncertain”. The economy fell into recession in 2014 for the first time since 2006. A key uncertainty is the continuation of clearance revenues, revenues collected by Israel in the form of indirect taxes on imported goods and later transferred to the Palestinian Authority.  HA/IINA