Languages: Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by Israeli settlers and many
Palestinians), English (widely understood)
Literacy: NA
Government
Country name: conventional long form: none conventional short form: Gaza Strip local long form: none local short form: Qita Ghazzah
Data code: GZ
Economy
Economy—overview: Economic conditions in the Gaza Strip?under the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority since the Cairo Agreement of May 1994—have deteriorated since the early 1990s. Real per capita GDP for the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) declined 36% between 1992 and 1996 owing to the combined effect of falling aggregate incomes and robust population growth. The downturn in economic activity was largely the result of Israeli closure policies—the imposition of generalized border closures in response to security incidents in Israel—which disrupted previously established labor and commodity market relationships between Israel and the WBGS. The most serious negative social effect of this downturn has been the emergence of chronic unemployment; average unemployment rates in the WBGS during the 1980s were generally under 5%, by the mid-1990s this level had risen to over 20%. Since 1997 Israel's use of comprehensive closures has decreased and, in 1998, Israel implemented new policies to reduce the impact of closures and other security procedures on the movement of Palestinian goods and labor. These positive changes to the conduct of economic activity, combined with international donor pledges of over $3 billion made to the Palestinian Authority in November, may fuel a moderate economic recovery in 1999.
GDP: purchasing power parity—$1.1 billion (1998 est.)
GDP—real growth rate: 2.2% (1998 est.)
GDP—per capita: purchasing power parity?$1,000 (1998 est.)