External support for the Palestinian Authority since the beginning of the year does not cover the salary bill for two months

Exclusive SadaNews: Recent data from the Palestinian Ministry of Finance has shown that the total external support for the Palestinian National Authority from the beginning of this year (2025) until last October amounted to 2.016 billion shekels, approximately $615 million, of which 1.626 billion shekels, or about $500 million, was allocated to budget support.

The largest financial aid received by the public treasury was from the European Union through the "PEGAS" mechanism, reaching approximately 795.3 million shekels by the end of last October, followed by the World Bank with 631.3 million shekels, Saudi Arabia with 101.3 million shekels, France with 31.3 million shekels, and Norway with 67.6 million shekels.

The total budget support provided represents 11% of total revenues, which practically does not cover the salary bill for two months, specifically providing for about one salary and 60% of another, as the monthly salary bill amounts to nearly one billion and fifty million shekels. These announced figures do not include what has reached the public treasury after October.

Overall, the total support provided to the public treasury this year has decreased compared to the same period last year by approximately 11.3%, as it reached 1.834 billion shekels, or about $564 million, while support by the end of October 2023 was approximately 664 million shekels, or around $204 million, indicating that compared to the support provided to the public treasury this year versus the same period of 2023, support has increased by about 59%.

SadaNews has published documented data from the Monetary Authority regarding "Public Financial Data," which showed that the total external support for the Palestinian National Authority via the public budget on a cash basis reached (21.8) billion dollars, of which (16.4) billion dollars went directly to the public treasury, and (5.4) billion dollars for developmental projects, during the years 1996-2024, that is, over 29 years with an annual average cash support reaching (751) million dollars per year.

The data revealed that external funding peaked in (2008) with an amount of about (2) billion dollars. In the last ten years, external support has significantly and relevantly declined, reaching in 2023 only (18%) of what it was in 2008.

The specific data from the Ministry of Finance indicates that the total public revenues that reached the public treasury of the Palestinian National Authority since the beginning of the year until the end of last October amounted to approximately 12.56 billion shekels on a commitment basis, while it amounted to about 9.64 billion shekels on a cash basis compared to about 12 billion shekels on a commitment basis by the end of October of last year and about 9.73 billion shekels on a cash basis. Meanwhile, the total public revenues on a commitment basis by the end of October 2023 reached about 15.22 billion shekels and about 14.5 billion on a cash basis, meaning that total revenues in the first 10 months of this year have declined on a cash basis by approximately 33.5%, indicating that the Palestinian National Authority has practically lost about a third of its revenues two years into the war.

Official figures confirm that although external support for the public budget has shown significant improvement over the last two years, its impact on meeting the financial needs of the Palestinian Authority has been limited, given that the Israeli side has held back clearance funds that account for about 68% of total revenues, which were valued at approximately one billion shekels monthly before the war.

It is noted that the monthly obligations of the Palestinian National Authority, which include salary bills, pensions for retirees, social assistance, in addition to operational expenses, reach around 1.5 billion shekels monthly.

In light of these data, and despite international trends to provide additional support for the Palestinian Authority as evident in the last two years, the figures indicate that all of this remains merely patchwork solutions without the release of clearance funds, which the government recently mentioned that the total Israeli piracy of them has reached about (13) billion shekels.

The Palestinian Authority is experiencing its worst financial crisis since its establishment, as it is unable to fully meet its obligations either in terms of paying full salaries to employees or in providing services across various sectors.

The total public debt and accumulated dues on the Palestinian National Authority amount to about 46.5 billion shekels, of which 7.3 billion shekels are overdue dues for public sector employees.