The overall foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority’s budget from the beginning of 2015 and until November 2015 was 2 billion and 831 million shekels ($725 million), disbursed on the general and development budgets.

Asma Marzouq – Palestine Economy Portal

Translated by Tamara Barakat

The financial statements issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Finance, on Thursday, revealed that the foreign aid and funding to the Palestinian Authority has decreased by 17% during the first eleven months of 2015, in comparison with the same period in 2014.

The Ministry of Finance’s report showed that the overall foreign aid designated to the budget from the beginning of 2015 and until November 2015 constituted 38% and amounted to 2 billion and 831 million shekels ($725 million), while it reached 3 billion and 396 million shekels ($871 million) during the same period in 2014. Consequently, the foreign aid decreased by 17%.

Foreign aid only covered 38% of the anticipated amount of money in the budget.

The huge gap in funding took its toll on the development budget, in which the Gaza reconstruction budget for this year was merged. It received a foreign assistance of 303 million shekels that solely covered 7% of the 4 billion shekels anticipated in the budget. The regular budget was supported with 2.5 billion shekels.

Numbers also showed that the US did not support the Palestinian budget during the 11 months in 2015, while the European Union offered 749 million shekels through the PEGASE mechanism.

As for Arab countries, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia took the lead among the countries supporting the Palestinian budget and donated 942.5 million shekels during the 11 months. It was followed by Algeria that donated 204.8 million shekels.