RAMALLAH, West Bank: A pledge of $100 million from Saudi Arabia and other international aid is easing the Palestinian Authority's (PA) financial crisis, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Sunday. The PA is relying on help from foreign backers to plug a budget deficit projected at $1.2 billion for 2010. At a Sept. 20 donors' meeting in New York, Fayyad said the PA needed $500 million to meet its funding shortfall for the year. Speaking to Reuters Sunday, he said there had recently been progress, including a $40 million World Bank grant. Saudi Arabia told the PA Sunday that it was about to transfer $100 million “in addition to other commitments it had made to the PA treasury”, Fayyad added. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been the PA's main Arab backers in recent years, according to official figures seen by Reuters in August. Donor support has been one of the main drivers of economic growth in the Israel-occupied Palestinian territories. Real economic growth in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is forecast at 8 percent in 2010, compared with 6.8 percent in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund. Salaries paid to around 150,000 PA employees are a major support for the economy. They include some 67,000 people in the Gaza Strip, where the Western-backed adminstration has continued to pay wages to people it employed when the Hamas group seized control in 2007.
