Foreign aid to Palestinian Authority dropped 43% since 2011

Rami Hamdallah, the PA's prime minister, said on Monday that there has been a "sharp decline," in grants and external financial aid to the Palestinian Authority of 43% since 2011.

In a press release, on the sidelines of a meeting with a delegation from the Palestinian private sector, to discuss the partnership between the two sides (government and private), Hamdallah said that "aid is still in steady decline, according to the Palestinian budget numbers."

Grants and financial aid received by the Palestinian government since the beginning of the year until the end of October was 685.4 million US dollars, a decline of 27% compared with the corresponding period of last year, according to Palestinian Ministry of Finance figures.

He said, "the government implemented a policy to optimize expenditures, to coincide with the decline of financial grants, and it raised tax revenues during the current year to a monthly average of US $ 175 million, compared with $ 90 million in 2011.

My guess is that the bulk of the decline came from Arab nations who have been losing interest in Palestinian issues for years, but now have their own problems that makes the supposedly keystone Palestinian issue fall way down the priority list.

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