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UNCTAD Press Conference: Developments in the Economy of the OPT Report - 12 September 2024
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Press Conferences , Edited News | UNCTAD
UNCTAD Press Conference: Developments in the Economy of the OPT Report - 12 September 2024
Story: UNCTAD Palestine Report – 12 September 2024
TRT: 03’36”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 12 September 2024 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Wide shot of the press conference room with speakers on the podium.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Pedro Manuel Moreno, Deputy Secretary-General, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD): “The Palestinian economy is in freefall. The report calls for the international community to halt this economic freefall, address the humanitarian crisis and lay the groundwork for lasting peace and development. This includes considering a comprehensive recovery plan for the occupied Palestinian territory, increased international aid and support, release of withheld revenues and lifting the blockade on Gaza.”
- Medium shot: Press room with journalists and control room at the back.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Mutasim Elagraa, Coordinator, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Assistance to the Palestinian People: “The Palestinian agricultural sector in the last quarter of 2023 shrunk by 11 per cent, and that is especially worrisome because the agricultural sector provides a decent chunk of employment, and it produces income. It produces exports. It contributes to food security, and in Palestine it plays another special role. The agricultural sector is a shock absorber - whenever there's a crisis and Palestinian workers lose their jobs, whether in the domestic economy or with their work in Israel and settlements, they go back to agriculture temporarily, and there they can produce some income.”
- Close shot: Journalist in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Rami Alazzeh, Economist, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD): “Just to give you a comparison: in the peak of the second Intifada, in 2000 to 2002, the Palestinian economy lost 33 per cent of its value. And now we're seeing this drop over one year. Basically, it's the highest unemployment recorded for the West Bank. Even in the peak of the second Intifada, the highest we've seen is 28 per cent. In the first quarter of 2024, unemployment reached 35 per cent. So we're talking about almost triple what it was prior to October 2023.”
- Medium shot: Speakers at the podium in the Press room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Mutasim Elagraa, Coordinator, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Assistance to the Palestinian People: “The problem is general. It's in Gaza, in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. It's not just Gaza. Although in Gaza, it is really extreme. It will take decades and high tens of billions of dollars, if not even more, to rebuild Gaza and put it back like where it was before October 2023. So if we want to return Gaza to pre-October 2023, we need tens of billions of dollars, or even more, and decades.”
- Medium shot: Speakers at the podium.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Rami Alazzeh, Economist, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD): “What's left in Gaza is basically the humanitarian support. There's not much left in Gaza and when you say two thirds of the jobs were lost, already Gaza's unemployment before October 2023 was 45 per cent. So what's left in Gaza now is just the humanitarian aid workers, local UN staff, doctors, nurses. That's it. The economy basically collapsed months ago. So this is what's left in Gaza functioning now.”
- Medium shot: Journalist in the press room.
Palestinian economy “in freefall” amid ongoing Gaza conflict - UNCTAD
Gaza’s economy has “collapsed months ago” while in the West Bank, violence and trade restrictions are fueling a massive surge in poverty and unemployment, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) warned on Thursday.
The war-torn enclave’s economy has shrunk to less than a sixth of its 2022 level, while up to 96 per cent of its agricultural assets and 82 per cent of all its businesses have been destroyed, according to UNCTAD’s latest report.
“The Palestinian economy is in freefall,” UNCTAD deputy chief Pedro Manuel Moreno told journalists in Geneva. “The report calls for the international community to halt this economic freefall, address the humanitarian crisis and lay the groundwork for lasting peace and development.”
Mr. Moreno insisted on the need for a “comprehensive recovery plan” for the occupied Palestinian territory, as well as increased international aid, the release of withheld Palestinian revenues withheld by Israel and an end to the blockade on Gaza.
According to UNCTAD, in addition to “unprecedented loss of life” and displacement, the combined impact of Israel’s military operation in Gaza that followed the attacks of 7 October 2023 by Palestinian armed groups in southern Israel, and the conflict’s repercussions in the West Bank “delivered an unparalleled shock that overwhelmed the Palestinian economy across the occupied Territory”.
The Palestinian agricultural sector shrunk by 11 per cent in the last quarter of 2023, which is “especially worrisome” given the sector’s importance in terms of jobs, exports and food security, said Mutasim Elagraa, coordinator of UNCTAD’s programme of assistance to the Palestinian people.
“The agricultural sector is a shock absorber - whenever there's a crisis and Palestinian workers lose their jobs, whether in the domestic economy or with their work in Israel and settlements, they go back to agriculture temporarily, and there they can produce some income,” he explained.
UNCTAD stressed that in the West Bank, settlement expansion and increased settler violence, land confiscations and demolition of Palestinian structures are driving population displacement and record unemployment, with over 300,000 jobs lost since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza.
“It's the highest unemployment recorded for the West Bank,” said UNCTAD economist Rami Alazzeh “Even in the peak of the second Intifada, the highest we've seen is 28 per cent. In the first quarter of 2024, unemployment reached 35 per cent” – almost triple what it was prior to October 2023.
In Gaza, the situation is even more “extreme” UNCTAD said, with two thirds of pre-war jobs lost by January 2024 and the entire population of the enclave dependent on international aid.
“What's left in Gaza is basically the humanitarian support… the humanitarian aid workers, local UN staff, doctors, nurses, that's it,” Mr. Alazzeh said. “The economy basically collapsed months ago.”
Asked about prospects for an economic recovery once the guns are silenced, UNCTAD’s Mr. Elagraa warned that “if we want to return Gaza to pre-October 2023, we need tens of billions of dollars, or even more, and decades.”
-Ends-
Teleprompter
[Other language spoken]
Welcome to the launch of the 2024 UNGTAD Report on the developments in the economy of the Palestinian Occupied Palestinian Territory, and thank you for joining us.
We have with us the Deputy Secretary General of UN Trade and Development, Ungtad, Mr Pedro Manuel Moreno, who will present an overview of the findings of this report and Mr Mutasim Alagra, Coordinator of the assistance to the Palestinian People Unit in Ontad, who will present the technical details of the data and the findings together with the co-author Mr Mutasim, who is also here with us today.
[Other language spoken]
We will then take questions regarding this report and it's findings and our experts will be available to answer.
Thank you very much as we begin.
Thank you for the journalists who are joining us online and those present in the room.
And Mr Deputy Secretary General, the floor is now yours.
[Other language spoken]
Today we are releasing a report detailing the economic situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, driven by the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The report highlights the economic devastation and unprecedented drop in economic activity, greater than in all previous military confrontations in 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021.
We are talking about inflationary pressure, soaring unemployment and collapsing incomes, all of which have considerably impoverished Palestinian households.
As you know, the UN General Assembly mandated Ant that quote, to report on the economic costs of the Israeli occupation for the Palestinian people, quote and our board requires we report on Anta's work supporting the Palestinian people through Economic Research, capacity building and policy.
For nearly 44 decades, Antar has been doing that.
Our most recent report was an assessment in January of this year on the economic impact of the destruction in Gaza and prospects for economic recovery.
I would like to recognise the work of the authors of the report we are presenting today, Mutasim Elagra, Coordinator of the Assistance to the Palestinian People Unit in Antat and Rami Abdulmutti Alasay, lead author of this report, for their extraordinary work and commitment.
The report we share with you today Portressa region in great economic distress, with collapsing GDP, widespread poverty and soaring unemployment.
This now effects all the Occupied Palestinian Territories territory, impacting people in Gaza, the West Bank and E Jerusalem, and it is putting a severe strain on basic services.
[Other language spoken]
Gaza's GDP has dropped by an alarming 81% in the last quarter of 2023 alone.
This has led to a 22% contraction in GDP for the entire year.
Gaza's economy is now less than 1/6 of what it was in 2022.
The destruction of up to 96% of Gaza's agricultural assets, which are the backbone of the economy, have been destroyed, and 82% of all business businesses have also been destroyed, further deteriorating the economy.
Secondly, looking at the West Bank, we see surging poverty and spiralling unemployment which are intensifying the impact on households and driving poverty.
The crisis has had a devastating effect on the labour market with mass job losses, deepening poverty and worsening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
2/3 of pre war jobs, approximately 200,000, were lost by January 2024.
In the West Bank.
Unemployment has risen from 12.9% before the conflict to a staggering 32%.
This has resulted in an estimated daily labour income loss of $25.5 million, eroding household resilience and increasing social hardship.
So we are seeing that the West Bank has also been affected from the economic fallout.
The initial optimism of a 4% GDP growth in the West Bank during the first 3/4 of 2023 has been reversed, and what we are seeing is an overall annual GDP decline of 1.9%.
Finally, it is of great concern that Palestinian government's fiscal stability is under severe ******.
Since October 2023, Israel's withholding of Palestinian revenues has escalated.
Since 2019, withheld revenues total over $1.4 billion.
These amounts to 8.1% of Palestine's GDP in 2023.
With health revenues, together with a sharp decline in international aid, have crippled the government's stubby ability to function.
Public employees have not been paid full salaries since November 2021, and essential services are at risk of collapse.
The Palestinian economy is in freefall.
The report calls for the international community to halt this economic freefall, address the humanitarian crisis and lay the groundwork for lasting peace and development.
This includes considering a comprehensive recovery plan for the Occupied Palestinian territory, increased international aid and support, release of withheld revenues and lifting the blockade on Gaza.
As I said earlier, ANTAT for nearly four decades has been working to strengthen the Palestinian economy in support of the of the Palestinian people through research and analysis, advocacy and capacity building, and it remains an ongoing commitment.
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much, Deputy Secretary General of Ontad and I'll give the floor to Mutasim Alagra, Coordinator of the Assistance to the Palestinian People Unit in Ontad and author of this report.
Mutasim, the floor is yours.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
First, let me say something about the scope of this report.
The report as as usual it's an annual report to the UN Trade and Development Board and the scope covers all local white Palestinian treaty.
It's not about one region.
It covers the West Bank visa and E Jerusalem.
But regarding Raza, early in this year and it that published an assessment of the economic impact of the war on Raza and that assessment is available.
It is still there.
The insights there are still relevant.
Maybe the numbers have changed, the magnitude of the damage have changed, but the the the analysis remain valid.
Also anecdot prepared the report of the UN General Assembly on the economic impact of the war in Gaza until mid 2024 and that report will be made available soon.
So I refer you to these two reports because they are specifically about the impact of war in Gaza and, and it said put the focus in Gaza in this report.
Here we we take up the whole Occupied Palestinian Treaty.
So if I am to summarise this report in just in, in a few sentences, I will say that the state of the Palestinian economy was in their conditions before the the latest war.
[Other language spoken]
What has changed is the scale of the destruction.
But before the war, the situation was really grim.
But of course the scale matters.
You know, this is a scale of destruction is unprecedented.
Also we should put in mind that the situation in Gaza is catastrophic, but in the West Bank the situation is also is really there and it's deteriorating by the day.
So the problem is general, it's in Gaza, in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
It's not just Gaza, although in Gaza it is really extreme.
It will take decades and **** 10s of billions of dollars if not even more to rebuild Raza and put it back like where it was before October 2023.
So if we want to return Raza to pre October 2023, we need 10s of billions of dollars or even more and decades.
But the goal should not be like bringing Raza to pre October 2023.
The goal is to put Raza on a path of sustainable development and that will take even more resources and more time.
The other important thing that emphasising the report is fiscal crisis, which Pedro mentioned gripping the Palestinian government.
The crisis is really bad.
It's affected the government ability to provide services, to deliver governance and to just pay social transfers to the poor and even pays to its its employees.
You know, Palestinian government employees have been receiving partial salaries since November 2021, and it got worse after this crisis, OK.
The other important thing is that we finalise this report by early June 2024.
So the statistics about the key indicators there are dated.
So since then, these numbers may have changed and changed the worst.
[Other language spoken]
The reports observed that 2023 was the 30th anniversary of the Oslo Accords.
We know that in 1993 the Oslo Accord 1 was signed and the goal of the accord was signed by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and the government of Israel.
The goal was to establish peace based on United Nation and Security Council resolutions.
The accord nature, the great hopes that peace has become within reach, which was good news for the Palestinians, for the Israelis, for the region and indeed for the whole world.
So the latest war that started in last in October 23 of coincided to the 30th University of the Oslo Peace Accords.
And that says a lot about the deterioration of the situation from hope to despair and destruction.
In the years that followed the signing of the Oslo Accord, it was a roller coaster.
Some years were good, They witnessed cooperation, some development in Palestine, economic development and cooperation between the different parties and stakeholders, including the international community and the United Nations.
And some years were years of confrontation, destruction and reversals.
So like since October, now I'm talking about the whole Palestinian economy, you know, like the, the totality of the economy in rather the West Bank and Jerusalem is Jerusalem.
So after October 2023, the, you know, like they, they witnessed the worst and most destructive military confrontation since probably 1967 and certainly since establishment of the Palestinian National Authority of the Palestinian government in 1994.
Because of the war across whole OPD or Palestinian treaty production processes and trade were disrupted or wiped out, incomes evaporated and poverty deepened and widened.
So the scale of the destruction and loss in economic activity and loss in income unemployment exceeded all previous military operations in 2008.
2012 20/14/2021 This is the worst and most destructive time witnessed by the Palestinian economy since its occupation in 1967 and the decline in income and economic activity is in 2024 is on course to be the the the worst since 1967.
[Other language spoken]
No sector was this was spared.
For example, the Palestinian agricultural sector in the last quarter of 2023 like shrunk by 11% and that is especially worrisome because this the agricultural sector provides a decent chunk of employment and it produces income, it produces exports, it contributes to food security.
And in Palestine it is blaze another special role.
The agricultural sector is a shock absorber, like whenever there's a crisis and Palestinian workers lose their jobs, whether in the domestic economy or with their work in Israel and settlements, they go back to agriculture temporarily.
And there they can produce some income, they can produce some food, and also they work there, provide them with dignity until they find like the next job and when the crisis is over.
So we're extremely worried about what happened to Palestinian agriculture in the West Bank and in Gaza.
So because of the disruption to economic activities and trade activities, also imports in the last quarter of 20 and 23 fell by 1/3.
[Other language spoken]
And the shortage is that resulted from disruption if trade and production fueled inflation, **** inflationary pressures and especially the prices of food and fuel increased by a lot.
And these are necessities that nobody can can do without them.
So household welfare deteriorated by loss of income because people lost their jobs and by loss of employment and also by **** inflation.
So household were really, really squeezed and they resorted to unsustainable and tragic COVID strategies.
The last thing I would say about the Palestinian economy as a whole is that asymmetric dependence on the Israeli market continued.
So as you know, like Palestinian economy is not allowed to trade normally with the rest of the old.
There are so many restrictions imposed by occupation that makes it hard for Palestinians to trade with the rest of the old.
So the Palestinians are forced to conduct most of their trade with the Israeli market.
So in 2023, Israel accounted for 2/3 of Palestinian imports came from Israel.
So 2 third of Palestinian trade with Israel on On the other side, Palestine account only for 3% of Israeli trade.
This is asymmetric dependence.
It is not natural.
It's a product of occupation.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
It has been a tight air, land and sea blockade.
Palestinians in Gaza were not allowed to import as as they wish, whether consumer goods or imports or technology.
They were not also allowed to freely move in and out of Gaza.
They needed permission from the occupying power.
And these permissions were like not easy to get.
So, I mean, history did not in Gaza or anywhere.
History did not start in.
[Other language spoken]
There is a long history to the conflict.
Between 2008 and 2021, the occupying Power implemented several military operations in Gaza.
This operation decimated most of the Palestinian productive base.
They hauled out the economy and destroyed much of the infrastructure and the latest war.
Like literally obliterated what was left of that feeble infrastructure.
I will not enumerate loss and destruction because, you know, I don't know like more than 3/4 of schools were damaged or destroyed.
Most of hospitals were destroyed.
And even the hospitals that are still on operation, they, they lack fuel, electricity, medical supplies and they like giving basic securities.
I'm sure you know all of the of these things.
I'll just say that by early 2020, 482% of private sector establishment were damaged or destroyed in Gaza.
Unemployment shot to about 80% and a shared of the people by early 2024 were displaced from their homes and some of them displaced multiple times.
Now they live in crowded shelters under conditions of lack of food, lack of medical care and lack of hygiene.
And these are ideal conditions for the spread of disease, physical disease and psychological disease and all types of suffering.
By twenty, 2280% of the people of Gaza depended on international aid.
That is in 2022 before the war.
After the war, poverty and multi dimensional poverty engulfs the whole population of Gaza.
So it was bad before the war because 80% were dependent on international aid.
It got worse after the war.
So the war was just a change in, in the skill, the suffering was there before the war.
If you go to the West Bank, the war started in Lhasa, but soon the confrontation spilled to the West Bank and occupying power increased its restrictions on the movement of Palestinian people and good in the West Bank.
And entrances to most villages and towns in the West Bank where blocked by the occupying power.
And the checkpoints, which are barriers to the movement of people and goods increased from 567 before the war to more than 700 after in early 2024.
So this is not new.
It's just just an increase in in in the scale before the war, you had 567 barriers to the movement of the Palestinian people.
They just increase to 700.
[Other language spoken]
This restriction hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid.
They cause also shortages of consumer goods and inputs, and also obstruct the axis of workers to the work sites.
99% of his bank economic establishment were affected by the confrontation.
99% That basically means everyone sales dropped and firms were forced to layout workers, layoff workers or cut wages and small and medium enterprises were hit the hardest.
Situation was also deteriorated in East Jerusalem.
It witnessed the considerable economic downturn, downturn in in key economic activities, whether they're being trade, tourism and services, where 80% of businesses in the Old City of East Jerusalem rewarded either complete or partial cessation of operation.
Other cities in the West Bank were also affected, especially by the loss of customers from the Israeli side.
You know, a lot of Israelis used to shop in Palestinian cities for different reasons, price differential, cultural ties, whatever.
And this cross-border shopping stopped completely.
So a lot of businesses lost their customers and shoppers from the seller side accounted for significant part of aggregate demand in 13 cities.
So that was really hard on on on some cities so like household cope with the loss of income unemployment by things like selling personal items, selling gold or vending on the streets.
And now I'll say something about unemployment and unemployment in the West Bank in in previous report and it had warned that the West Bank economy excessively depends on employment in Israeli settlements and in the Australian economy by twenty, 2222.5%.
That's like almost 23% of employed people in the West Bank work either in settlements or in Israel.
And that situation was caused by the fact that the domestic economy is restricted by occupation.
It cannot produce jobs.
So people find this the only way for them to get to work is to work in settlements or in the Israeli economy.
And we have warned that this source of employment is is precarious because it is vulnerable to change in political and security situations.
Those so, so this 20 these workers in Israel and settlement used to earn $4 billion a year and $4 billion was about 1/4 of Palestinian GDB and not West Bank GDB, Palestinian GDB.
So all these all these workers or up a world of 90% of them lost access to their jobs when the war started.
That was a huge shock to Palestinian household and to the Palestinian economy as a whole.
Another, even the Palestinian workers who work in the domestic economy, 6067 thousand of them became unable to access their work sites.
Because if you live in, you live in this city and then you work in another town outside, you cannot move to your workplace because of the deterioration of the security situation.
So that, that that was tough now and also in 2023 and 2024, at least first half of 2024 settlements continue to expand in the West Bank.
That's and these settlements are illegal flagrant violation under international law, according to the United Nations Resolution and Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 2334 of 2016, which describes him as flagrant violation in the international law.
But they continue to expand.
[Other language spoken]
When the on the eve of the Oslo Accord in 1993, there were 250,000 settlers in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and by the end of 2023 these settlers grew to 700,000.
So as the growth of settlement is facilitated by economic incentives provided by the occupying power, it build infrastructure that makes settlements possible.
Sometimes it provide tax advantages and other subsidies to settlers to move there.
These settlements displace Palestinians from their land.
They alter the demographic composition of the West Bank and they hinder 2 state solution.
They make peace based on the two state solution much harder.
They fragment Palestinian geography and markets and they impede economic development.
Like when you lose your land and natural resources, how can you develop?
You cannot develop also in in Area C of the West Bank of Area C is like 60% of the West Bank.
Palestinians cannot build anything without getting permission from the occupying power.
You cannot build infrastructure, you cannot build a house for residence or for business or for any purpose until you get permission from the occupying power.
And the acceptance rate of for these permissions is 1%, like 1% is accepted, 99% of the application rejected.
If you build without permit, occupying power destroys this this assets you build and the destruction also include donor funded structures.
OK, so these are the situation in the in the West Bank and also settler violence peaked after October 2023 and all this create a coercive environment that pushes Palestinians out of area C of the West Bank.
So Palestinians move out and Israeli central move in and the demographic composition change.
Pedro talked about the severe fiscal crisis faced by the Palestinian government.
I will not add to that.
I just, I just say that if the Palestinian government collapses because of lack of fiscal resources, the consequences will be there.
These consequences can be political, economic and social.
I'll stop here and then we maybe we can continue later.
Thank you very much.
We now open the floor for questions regarding this report from the media.
First, we will take questions from journalists in the room and then from online journalists.
[Other language spoken]
And I would also invite to the podium Mr Rami Abdulmutti Alaisi, co-author of the report, and to whom I apologise for the earlier mispronunciation of his name.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Please identify yourself for the benefit of our speakers.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
My name is Crystal Vogt.
I'm a reporter with France Press here.
Thanks for the.
Thanks for the pressure.
I wanted to come back to what you said, Sir, about how much it's going to cost and how long it's going to take to rebuild.
So you talked about **** 10s of billions.
Is there is Zoom TAD working on a more precise plan?
Could you give us a more precise figure and and how much time it would take to to rebuild Gaza if if we imagine that the destruction stops now?
[Other language spoken]
We can take a further question, perhaps from the room, and then pass it on to our authors 1 by 1, OK.
At the moment it is very hard because the war is still rage zone and so we don't know when it will stop.
We don't know how much destruction will will happen until it stops.
But evidence we have now, it will be, as I said, like **** 10s of billions or even maybe even more, because just a few months ago, just the houses that were destroyed, the buildings that were destroyed cost like maybe 18 to $20 billion.
So if you just want to replace these buildings, it's just $20 billion.
And I mean, the destruction has intensified since then.
And also, if you talk about the infrastructure destroyed, the irrigation systems that were destroyed as the farms, you know, just removing the rubble will be very costly and it will take such a long time.
So it will take really, really a lot of billions of dollars and it'll take decades to bring KAZA back to where it was in before October 2023.
But it repeats the goal of the international community should not be returned Gaza to pre October 2023.
It needs to be put on a bus to sustainable development by establishing peace, lifting the blockade, allowing the Palestinians to reduce normally and trade normally in peace with the rest of of the world.
Thank you very much.
Further questions from the room.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
I'm Jamie from Associated Press.
I wanted to just go over the numbers, if you don't mind.
You mentioned this figure of 1/6 that it's to clientele to 1/6.
Could you just be a little bit more specific about how you get to that number?
Because I did the math and I'm sure your math is better than mine, but but I get roughly 1/7, which is.
So what is your benchmark for pre 20, pre October 2027?
Is it the previous quarter?
Is it the previous year?
Are you, I mean, just how do you get to that?
Because the latest figure that I saw was I think it was 92.2 million for the end of the first quarter, which seems to be the most recent 2024.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Thank you very much.
The question please by this number like depend on what are we comparing, if we're comparing last quarter of 2023 with last quarter of 2022 or are we comparing the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2023 or are we averaging them out?
So that's change the calculations, but I think Ramy can can give more details.
So it is, it is through the the N, sorry.
So the the first quarter of 2024, the GDP in Gaza basically was 14% of what it was in in Q1 of 2023.
But looking when we say the economy in Gaza is 1 less than 1/6 is basically the averaging of the Q4 of 2023 and the Q1 of 2024 and Q 4/20/23 the economy lost 81% of its value compared to Q4 of 2022.
And then in Q1 of 2024, it lost 86% of what it was in Q1 of 2023.
So it's not a one quarter kind of calculation, it's an average of the since the the war in Gaza started.
I just want to make sure I heard you correctly.
So the, the, the 1/6 you're talking about Q4 of 2023 compared to Q1 of 2024, is that right?
It's the average decline.
So if you take Q4 and Q1Q4 of 2023 and Q1 of 2024 and you compare them to the similar quarters of Q 4/20/22 and Q 1/20/23 because so it's it's 1/4 like now the, the 1/4 will not give you the full picture, but you can see the trend over the quarters.
So first we started with the 81 decline, now we have 86 decline.
So on average that's why we say it's less like 16% of what it was going to compares.
And the last figures you have is Q1 of 2024, correct?
Exactly.
Yes, that is clear.
[Other language spoken]
If there are no further questions from the room, we now go to our colleagues who are online.
I first give the floor to Jeremy ***** from Radio France.
[Other language spoken]
The floor is yours.
We we hear your question.
[Other language spoken]
I'd like to go back to the, to what you just said to what Mr Moreno said earlier, like 2/3 of jobs destroyed.
I'd like to know what are the remaining 3rd that are left?
Who is working today in, in Gaza?
And how is money basically running given the extent of the, the station?
And we even talk of, of an economy left in, in, in, in Gaza.
I'm not talking about the West Bank, but is there any economy left there?
Thank you very much for the question.
I will pass it over to Rami.
[Other language spoken]
So what's what's lifting what's left in Gaza is basically the humanitarian, the humanitarian support.
There's not much left in Gaza.
And we will say 2/3 of the jobs were lost already.
Gaza's unemployment before October 2023 was 45%.
So what's left in Gaza now is just the humanitarian aid workers, local UN staff, doctors, nurses, that's it.
The economy is basically collapsed months ago.
So this is what's left in Gaza functioning now.
[Other language spoken]
I do not see any further questions in the room.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
Could you kindly identify yourself?
I'm Dina Abisab, a correspondent of different Arabic media.
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
[Other language spoken]
In the West Bank, it's what we're seeing now.
It's the worst economic decline UNCTAD has registered since 1972 in terms of GDP, in terms of GDP per capita.
And if we just look at the first quarter of 2024, there's the decline was 1/4 of the of the GDP.
Our estimate says that the decline in during 2024 will be between 1/4 and 1/3 of the economic activity in the West Bank.
And just to give you a comparison, in the peak of the second Intifada in 2000 to 2002, the Palestinian economy lost 33% of its value and now we're seeing this drop over one year.
Unemployment, basically it's the highest unemployment recorded for the West Bank, even in the peak of the 2nd and father, the highest we've seen is 28%.
In the first quarter of 2024, unemployment reached 35%.
So we're talking about almost triple what it was prior to October 2023.
If I, if I may add something also in addition to the problem of unemployment is that public sector employees have been receiving partial salaries for three years now and also private sector employees witnessed reduction in their salaries that averaging around 20%.
The other thing about unemployment, when we we say unemployment is 35%, it means 35% of people who are looking for work can cannot find it.
There are thousands of people or hundreds of thousands of people who do not work and they lost hope of finding a job so they dropped out of the labour market.
These are not included when include them.
That shows the problem of unemployment is far worse than the 35% official rate.
Thank you very much.
[Other language spoken]
So thank you for joining us here today.
And I remind journalists that the report is online on our website as our previous assessments earlier this year, to which our colleagues referred to.
And of course, our experts are available to speak to media for any further questions.
And Jamie, again, yes, I'm sorry, one last question.
I'm just rereading my copy as I've prepared this.
You do say this recovery plan, you talk about this, maybe somebody asked this.
I'm sorry if I'm repeating it, but what kind of time frame given the current state of affairs, do you see that possibly happening?
I mean, is there a recovery plan even invisible or insight at the moment?
What I can say is that we are the UN trade and development and our expertise is economic and development.
So the recovery plan is depends on when the war will end.
And that political question, it's a question for the whole international community.
And once the war ends and then after that there will be a need to mobilise global resources for rebuilding.
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So more once political questions and the political constraints are removed, then we can we'll be able to provide answer that take up the economic dimensions of it.
So thank you very much.
And with this we close the press conference.
I in this regard, I would also point you to the recent statements by the UN Secretary General he made yesterday and the day before regarding this, and he speaks for all of us.
So I would refer you to those and to our economic analysis, which is online, and our experts which are available for any further questions you might have.
Thank you very much indeed.
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