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Originally posted by Harlequin
the page you link shows a different picture on GDP
www.mepeace.org...
The standard tables of gross domestic product (GDP) per capital show the West Bank and Gaza at US$1,700, just below Egypt's $1,900 and significantly below Syria's $2,250 and Jordan's $3,000. GDP does not include foreign aid, however, which adds roughly 30% to spendable funds in the Palestinian territories.
Most important, the denominator of the GDP per capita equation - the number of people - is far lower than official data indicate. According to an authoritative study by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, the West Bank and Gaza population in 2004 was only 2.5 million, rather than the 3.8 million claimed by the Palestinian authorities. The numbers are inflated to increase foreign aid.
Adjusting for the Begin-Sadat Center population count and adding in foreign aid, GDP per capita in the West Bank and Gaza comes to $3,380, much higher than in Egypt and significantly higher than in Syria or Jordan. Why should any Palestinian refugee resettle in a neighboring Arab country?
GDP per capita, moreover, does not reflect the spending power of ordinary people. Forty-four percent of Egyptians, for example, live on less than $2 a day, the United Nations estimates. The enormous state bureaucracy eats up a huge portion of national income. New immigrants to Egypt who do not have access to government jobs are likely to live far more poorly than per capita GDP would suggest.
Other data confirm that Palestinians enjoy a higher living standard than their Arab neighbors. A fail-safe gauge is life expectancy. The West Bank and Gaza show better numbers than most of the Muslim world
www.latimes.com...
Although the international community has pledged almost $9 billion to support the Palestinians since 1993 through similar pledge-fests, less than half the amount of money promised actually materialized, according to a Palestinian source who asked not to be named. The delinquents include members of the Arab League as well as Japan and Italy, the source said.
www.voanews.com... 7
Representatives from donor nations meeting in Egypt have pledged more than $4.4 billion in new aid to help rebuild the war-torn Gaza Strip after the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said international donors meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh have pledged more than $5 billion for Gaza reconstruction. […]
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal told al Arabiya TV that rebuilding Gaza would be "difficult and fool-hardy, so long as peace and security do not prevail" in the territory.
Originally posted by Harlequin
reply to post by zerbot565
because its not a proven hoax thats why
in fact only 1 blog says otherwise - the same blog by Meir Javedanfar is thw one thats being used by everyone
[edit on 7/10/09 by Harlequin]
Originally posted by Harlequin
the graph i linked to - from the page you linked to again says nothing about the people of gaza and is purely iran`s GDP which is what you mentioned , im just using your own source to show a different a picture about iran than the one your trying to paint.
www.amazon.com...
The Economy of Iran: The Dilemma of an Islamic State
The Islamic revolution of 1979 heralded an expanded economic role for the Iranian state in safeguarding the revolution's redistributive aims. However, the Iranian economy in the 1980s and 1990s deteriorated markedly, and the state's enlarged role in the economy has been accompanied by acute macroeconomic instability and a sharp decline in the standard of living. This book of original essays identifies the principal issues, social, economic, and political, that have shaped and determined Iran's economic performance since the revolution.
blog.newsweek.com...
Ahmadinejad has been increasingly on the outs with conservatives in Iran for many months now, and not because of Israel but because of the economy, which he has notoriously mismanaged. His ill-thought out energy and monetary policies as well as runaway public subsidies have resulted in double digit inflation, rising unemployment, and blackouts. Under Ahmadinejad’s watch (and the highest oil prices in decades) the country has become a net gas importer, despite its vast natural resource wealth.
A faltering economy was a key issue in the June 12th [2009] elections, but the problems go back farther than that. In January, as the price of oil was falling, the Supreme Leader announced that Iran’s new five year development plan, set to come into effect next year, would funnel 20 percent of the country’s oil and gas revenues into a new development fund separate from the Oil Stabilization Fund, which, according to many analysts, Ahmadinejad has plundered wildly.
“There should be tens of billions of dollars left in the fund, and it’s not at all clear that there are,”
says Alireza Nader, an Iran analyst at the RAND Corporation.
“What is clear is that Ahmadinejad gave a lot of the oil money earned in the boom days to friends in the Revolutionary Guard, and to companies started by former Guard officers, often in the form of loans and no-bid state contracts.”
RAND estimates that such companies, while typically corrupt and inefficient, are now the biggest economic players in Iran, with far-reaching influence in key sectors like manufacturing, construction, and banking.