Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee

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...

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Main Author: World Bank Group
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/443631635864878225/Economic-Monitoring-Report-to-the-Ad-Hoc-Liaison-Committee
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36595
id okr-10986-36595
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-365952021-11-18T05:11:09Z Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee World Bank Group ECONOMIC GROWTH PUBLIC FINANCE FISCAL TRENDS MONETARY POLICY BANKING SECTOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY ENERGY SUPPLY WASTEWATER WATER DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY RECONSTRUCTION ECONOMIC RECOVERY BASIC EDUCATION LEARNING LOSS 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. The extremely high unemployment rate in Gaza comes hand-in-hand with deteriorating social conditions in the Strip. Estimates by the World Bank indicate that the recent conflict has pushed poverty in Gaza to 59.3 percent in 2021 (using 5.50 US Dollars a day (2011 PPP) international poverty line). This is 2.3 percentage points higher than the COVID-19 induced peak in 2020, and a 16.3 percentage point increase above the 2016-2017 values (latest available official data). 2021-11-17T21:41:54Z 2021-11-17T21:41:54Z 2021-11-17 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/443631635864878225/Economic-Monitoring-Report-to-the-Ad-Hoc-Liaison-Committee http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36595 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Economic Updates and Modeling Middle East and North Africa West Bank and Gaza
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ECONOMIC GROWTH
PUBLIC FINANCE
FISCAL TRENDS
MONETARY POLICY
BANKING SECTOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
ENERGY SUPPLY
WASTEWATER
WATER
DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE
HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY
RECONSTRUCTION
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
BASIC EDUCATION
LEARNING LOSS
spellingShingle ECONOMIC GROWTH
PUBLIC FINANCE
FISCAL TRENDS
MONETARY POLICY
BANKING SECTOR
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
ENERGY SUPPLY
WASTEWATER
WATER
DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE
HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT
FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY
RECONSTRUCTION
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
BASIC EDUCATION
LEARNING LOSS
World Bank Group
Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee
geographic_facet Middle East and North Africa
West Bank and Gaza
description 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. The extremely high unemployment rate in Gaza comes hand-in-hand with deteriorating social conditions in the Strip. Estimates by the World Bank indicate that the recent conflict has pushed poverty in Gaza to 59.3 percent in 2021 (using 5.50 US Dollars a day (2011 PPP) international poverty line). This is 2.3 percentage points higher than the COVID-19 induced peak in 2020, and a 16.3 percentage point increase above the 2016-2017 values (latest available official data).
format Report
author World Bank Group
author_facet World Bank Group
author_sort World Bank Group
title Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee
title_short Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee
title_full Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee
title_fullStr Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee
title_full_unstemmed Economic Monitoring Report to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee
title_sort economic monitoring report to the ad hoc liaison committee
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/443631635864878225/Economic-Monitoring-Report-to-the-Ad-Hoc-Liaison-Committee
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36595
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