Virgin Islands
NA
Wallis and Futuna
NA
Western Sahara
none
Yemen
NA
Zambia
NA
Zimbabwe
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition [Wellington CHIBEBE]; National
Constitutional Assembly or NCA [Lovemore MADHUKU]; Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions or ZCTU [Lovemore MATOMBO]
This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007
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@2116 Economy - overview
Afghanistan
Afghanistan's economy is recovering from decades of
conflict. The economy has improved significantly since the fall of
the Taliban regime in 2001 largely because of the infusion of
international assistance, the recovery of the agricultural sector,
and service sector growth. Real GDP growth probably exceeded 8% in
2006. Despite the progress of the past few years, Afghanistan is
extremely poor, landlocked, and highly dependent on foreign aid,
agriculture, and trade with neighboring countries. Much of the
population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean
water, electricity, medical care, and jobs. Criminality, insecurity,
and the Afghan Government's inability to extend rule of law to all
parts of the country pose challenges to future economic growth. It
will probably take the remainder of the decade and continuing donor
aid and attention to significantly raise Afghanistan's living
standards from its current status, among the lowest in the world.
While the international community remains committed to Afghanistan's
development, pledging over $24 billion at three donors' conferences
since 2002, Kabul will need to overcome a number of challenges.
Expanding poppy cultivation and a growing opium trade generate
roughly $3 billion in illicit economic activity and looms as one of
Kabul's most serious policy concerns. Other long-term challenges
include: budget sustainability, job creation, corruption, government
capacity, and rebuilding war torn infrastructure.