International donations donations to Palestinians down 43 pct since 2011: PM

International donations to the Palestinians have declined by 43 percent since 2011, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said on Monday.

Hamdallah made the remarks at his meeting with Palestinian businessmen in the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to a statement issued by his office.

In spite of the decline, the Palestinian government made a good use of the financial resources and followed the policy of cuts that reached one billion US dollars, it said.

Hamdallah unveiled that the public debt of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is now estimated at 4.1 billion dollars after it was 5.2 billion.

The government has managed to increase the tax revenue collected by Israel from about 83 million dollars to 143 million dollars, he added.

The meeting tackled means of empowering the partnership between the government and the Palestinian private sector to boost the local economy, the statement said.

Earlier, Palestinian officials announced that the PNA is facing an 18 percent budget deficit, which is, according to economists, due to the current unstable political situation.
 Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
7-8/12/15
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