By mid-2024, the enclave’s GDP had dropped to one-sixth of its pre-war level, according to a report
As per a report published on Thursday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the conflict between Israel and Gaza has resulted in the deepest recession in the economic activities in the Palestinian enclave.
Highly informative details included in the report shows that the gross domestic product of Gaza fell by 81 % in the last quarter of the year 2023 making the yearly contraction go to 22 %. By more than mid-2024, the economy of Gaza had reduced to below one-sixth of the level of 2022 and UNCTAD fingered it out as ‘in ruins’.
Among the noticeable aspects of particular concern in the damage caused by the violence is that of agriculture where between 80%-96% of agricultural agricultural assets capitals have been destroyed, the report reads. This destruction has severely disrupted the region’s food production and increased food insecurity that had already reached critical levels.
The private sector, which was the principal engine of Gaza’s economic growth has also been dealt heavy blows as 82% of all businesses have been either destroyed or damaged rendering the condition of the economy unfaverable. UNCTAD estimates that by January 2024, two-thirds or around 201,000 of Gazas’s employment had been destroyed. This, the report notes, has exacerbated the already critical economic and humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Except in the point of views and structural dimensions contained within the said region which had become quite volatile and interconnected due to Israeli/Hamas tensions, an undertaking continuation came into view as developments became evident after October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel. 80 percent of the population in Gaza would declare that they were Gazans on 16 October 2023 according to reports from those in Gaza.
