Wallis and Futuna
The economy is limited to traditional subsistence
agriculture, with about 80% labor force earnings from agriculture
(coconuts and vegetables), livestock (mostly pigs), and fishing.
About 4% of the population is employed in government. Revenues come
from French Government subsidies, licensing of fishing rights to
Japan and South Korea, import taxes, and remittances from expatriate
workers in New Caledonia.
West Bank
Real per capita GDP for the West Bank and Gaza Strip
(WBGS) declined by about one-third between 1992 and 1996 due to the
combined effect of falling aggregate incomes and rapid population
growth. The downturn in economic activity was largely the result of
Israeli closure policies - the imposition of border closures in
response to security incidents in Israel - which disrupted labor and
commodity market relationships between Israel and the WBGS. The most
serious social effect of this downturn was rising unemployment,
which in the WBGS during the 1980s was generally under 5%; by 1995
it had risen to over 20%. Israel's use of comprehensive closures
during the next three years 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 changes fueled an almost three-year-long economic recovery in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip; real GDP grew by 5% in 1998 and 6% in
1999. Recovery was upended in the last quarter of 2000 with the
outbreak of violence, which triggered tight Israeli closures of
Palestinian self-rule areas and severely disrupted trade and labor
movements. In 2001, and even more severely in 2002, Israeli military
measures in Palestinian Authority areas resulted in the destruction
of much capital plant and administrative structure, widespread
business closures, and a sharp drop in GDP. Including Gaza Strip,
the UN estimates that more than 100,000 Palestinians out of the
125,000 who used to work in Israel, in Israeli settlements, or in
joint industrial zones have lost their jobs. In addition, about
80,000 Palestinian workers inside the Territories are losing their
jobs. International aid of $2 billion in 2001-02 to the West Bank
and Gaza Strip prevented the complete collapse of the economy. In
2004, on-going border issues and the death of Yasser ARAFAT
continued to complicate the economic situation.
Western Sahara
Western Sahara depends on pastoral nomadism, fishing,
and phosphate mining as the principal sources of income for the
population. The territory lacks sufficient rainfall for sustainable
agricultural production, and most of the food for the urban
population must be imported. All trade and other economic activities
are controlled by the Moroccan Government. Moroccan energy interests
in 2001 signed contracts to explore for oil off the coast of Western
Sahara, which has angered the Polisario. Incomes and standards of
living in Western Sahara are substantially below the Moroccan level.
World
Global output rose by 3.7% in 2003, led by China (9.1%), India
(7.6%), and Russia (7.3%). The other 14 successor nations of the
USSR and the other old Warsaw Pact nations again experienced widely
divergent growth rates; the three Baltic nations continued as strong
performers, in the 5%-7% range of growth. Growth results posted by
the major industrial countries varied from a loss by Germany (-0.1%)
to a strong gain by the United States (3.1%). The developing nations
also varied in their growth results, with many countries facing
population increases that erode gains in output. Externally, the
nation-state, as a bedrock economic-political institution, is
steadily losing control over international flows of people, goods,
funds, and technology. Internally, the central government often
finds its control over resources slipping as separatist regional
movements - typically based on ethnicity - gain momentum, e.g., in
many of the successor states of the former Soviet Union, in the
former Yugoslavia, in India, in Iraq, in Indonesia, and in Canada.
Externally, the central government is losing decision-making powers
to international bodies. In Western Europe, governments face the
difficult political problem of channeling resources away from
welfare programs in order to increase investment and strengthen
incentives to seek employment. The addition of 80 million people
each year to an already overcrowded globe is exacerbating the
problems of pollution, desertification, underemployment, epidemics,
and famine. Because of their own internal problems and priorities,
the industrialized countries devote insufficient resources to deal
effectively with the poorer areas of the world, which, at least from
the economic point of view, are becoming further marginalized. The
introduction of the euro as the common currency of much of Western
Europe in January 1999, while paving the way for an integrated
economic powerhouse, poses economic risks because of varying levels
of income and cultural and political differences among the
participating nations. The terrorist attacks on the US on 11
September 2001 accentuate a further growing risk to global
prosperity, illustrated, for example, by the reallocation of
resources away from investment to anti-terrorist programs. The
opening of war in March 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq
added new uncertainties to global economic prospects. After the
coalition victory, the complex political difficulties and the high
economic cost of establishing domestic order in Iraq became major
global problems that continue into 2004.
Yemen
Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arab world,
reported strong growth in the mid-1990s with the onset of oil
production. It has been harmed by periodic declines in oil prices,
but now benefits from current high prices. Yemen has embarked on an
IMF-supported structural adjustment program designed to modernize
and streamline the economy, which has led to substantial foreign
debt relief and restructuring. International donors, meeting in
Paris in October 2002, agreed on a further $2.3 billion economic
support package. Yemen has worked to maintain tight control over
spending and to implement additional components of the IMF program.
A markedly high population growth rate and internal political
dissension complicate the government's task. Plans include a
diversification of the economy, encouragement of tourism, and more
efficient use of scarce water resources.
Zambia
Despite progress in privatization and budgetary reform,
Zambia's economic growth remains below the 5% to 7% necessary to
reduce poverty significantly. Privatization of government-owned
copper mines relieved the government from covering mammoth losses
generated by the industry and greatly improved the chances for
copper mining to return to profitability and spur economic growth.
Copper output increased in 2003 and is expected to increase again in
2004, due to higher copper prices. The maize harvest doubled in
2003, helping boost GDP by 4.0%. Cooperation continues with
international bodies on programs to reduce poverty, including a new
lending arrangement with the IMF expected in the second quarter,
2004. A tighter monetary policy will help cut inflation, but Zambia
still has a serious problem with fiscal discipline.
Zimbabwe
The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of
difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable
fiscal deficit, an overvalued exchange rate, soaring inflation, and
bare shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, for example, drained hundreds of millions of
dollars from the economy. Badly needed support from the IMF has been
suspended because of the country's failure to meet budgetary goals.
Inflation rose from an annual rate of 32% in 1998 to 383% in 2003,
and is expected to reach 700% in 2004. The government's land reform
program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly damaged the
commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and
foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs.
This page was last updated on 10 February, 2005
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@2117 Pipelines (km)