High unemployment blights Palestinian lives – UN report

"The economy of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) grew by 9.3 per cent last year, but that expansion was not enough to reduce the area’s 30 per cent unemployment rate, the United Nations trade and development arm said in a new report released today.

Gaza saw a 15 per cent growth, while the West Bank’s economy expanded by 7.6 per cent, the UN Conference of Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its annual report on assistance to the Palestinian people. The Palestinian per capita gross domestic product (GDP) last year was still seven per cent below the levels of 1999, according to the study.

The report stresses that there is considerable fiscal “leakage” as a result of substantial levels of indirect imports. Palestinian imports from Israel are not taxed, but a significant portion of such imports is made up of goods produced in the rest of the world and re-exported to the oPt, with import revenues accruing to the Israeli Treasury, the report notes."