Military Spending Amounts to  70% Of The State Total Debt [Archives:2000/16/Local News]

A recent study by the Yemeni Center for Strategic Studies, headed by ex-president Ali Nasser Mohammed has revealed in absolute numbers the rapid spread of poverty in Yemen. The study expected that the number of the poor would rise to 7 million, 48% of Yemen’s population, this year.
Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Mideast. About 10% of its population benefits from 40% of the national wealth and revenues. The average per capita in a year has noticed a sharp fall from US$ 686 to US$ 275 while the budget deficit for 1999 reached YRs 83 billion.
The study pointed out the increased number of poor people in Yemen from 4 million in 1996 to 7,922,000 in 1999. This is even less than what the ESCWA has recently reported as 47% which is the highest in the Mideast and Northern Africa.
Yemen’s external debts have amounted to US$ 7,735 billion in 1999, marking an increase of about US$ billion in one year. In a table showing where debts go, the study came at the fact that about 71% of the total debt was spent on the military sector, while only 1,7% on the education sector and 4,3% on the agricultural sector.
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