Gaza siege reduces inhabitants' purchasing power

Civil servants in the Gaza Strip have been paid only half their salaries for the past three months due to the blockade of the enclave. This reduced the purchasing power of the 50,000 employees and left markets virtually abandoned.

Hatem Eweda, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy in Gaza, compared the current reduction in GDP figures with growth figures which were 13.5 per cent last year and 25 per cent in 2012.

Eweda believes that, if Egypt continues to demolish tunnels used by Gazans to import items in to the besieged Strip, the unemployment rate in the Strip will rise to 43 per cent by the end of 2014, after it fell to 27 per cent in the past two years.

Gaza’s government said the local economy has suffered losses of $230 million a month since the events of June 30, 2013 in Egypt and Cairo’s subsequent campaign to close the tunnels.

MEMO Photographer: Mohammed Asad

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