Palestinian owners/managers of economic establishments reported that their major problem stems from the Israeli measures, adding that that their current economic situation is worse compared with last month.
According to a recent survey carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), some of the polled-respondents "were suffering from financial problems (47.6% of the respondents), others had problems on obtaining raw materials and inputs (27.6%), and problems on shipping goods and marketing (25.4%), while 20.4% had problems related to the ability of laboures to reach place of work."
In addition, 7.0% of the target group indicated that they were unable to operate regularly because of curfew, and 26.1% from other problems, PCBS said.
43.4% of the target group reported that their current economic situation is worse compared with last month (43.5% in West Bank and 43.0% in Gaza Strip), against 16.2% reported better situation (18.8% in West Bank and 10.4% in Gaza strip).
Regarding investment, the survey indicated that there may be no changes on the level of direct investments in the coming period in general, as 76.3% of the respondents expect that there will be no changes in this field in the coming year, and 10.4% expect an increase in the level of direct investment in the coming year, and 13.3% expect decrease, according to the PCBS press release. (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
