By year-end 2024, Palestine’s GDP is projected to take a nosedive from a pre-conflict forecast of $20.2 billion to $13.1 billion, reflecting a decline exceeding 35%, according to the deputy special representative
GENEVA
On Tuesday, the UN Development Program (UNDP) announced that a less visible “development crisis” is looming due to the conflict in Gaza, where Israel has claimed over 42,000 lives since last October, rendering the territory nearly uninhabitable.
This crisis threatens the future of all Palestinians, not just those in Gaza, remarked Chitose Noguchi, the UNDP’s deputy special representative, during a UN press briefing in Geneva.
The recent evaluation, launched in collaboration with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), revealed staggering economic losses, Noguchi stated.
She emphasized that by the conclusion of 2024, Palestine’s GDP is expected to plummet from a pre-war projection of $20.2 billion to $13.1 billion, representing a decline of over 35%.
Unemployment is “soaring,” with one in two individuals jobless.
“In Gaza, unemployment is approaching 80%,” Noguchi noted, adding that poverty is also “skyrocketing,” with three in four individuals living in impoverished conditions.
“In the State of Palestine, poverty is anticipated to rise to 74.3% by 2024, up from 38.8% at the close of 2023, impacting 4.1 million individuals, including 2.61 million who will fall into poverty for the first time,” she continued.
Describing the circumstances as an “unprecedented regression in development,” she cautioned that it signifies “a loss of nearly 24 years of development progress.”
The official asserted that humanitarian assistance alone “cannot place” the Palestinian economy on a recovery trajectory to restore pre-war conditions and align with Palestinian developmental objectives, even if it were to flow at a rate of $280 million annually for a decade.
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