DUBAI, Feb 11: The Israel-Hamas war has devastated the economies of both the embattled Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, the International Monetary Funds chief said Sunday, adding that only "durable peace" would improve the outlook.
"The Palestinian economys dire outlook is worsening as the conflict persists," managing director Kristalina Georgieva told the World Governments Summit in Dubai.
"Only a durable peace and political solution will fundamentally change it".
"Economically, the impact of the conflict has been devastating," Georgieva said.
In the war-ravaged coastal territory, economic activity dropped 80 percent from October through December compared with a year earlier, the IMF chief said.
In the West Bank, the drop was 22 percent, she added.
The larger Palestinian territory has been hit hard by Israels withdrawal of 130,000 work permits, the proliferation of checkpoints that has heavily disrupted transportation, the loss of tourism, being cut off from Gaza and Israels withholding of tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority. —AFP
