RIO DE JANEIRO, February 27. /TASS/. The United States administration sees no signs of a significant impact of the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the global economy, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said at a press conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on the eve of a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 countries.
"Since this past October, our commitment to protecting the global economy has also shaped our actions in response to the conflict in the Middle East. We have not seen a significant impact on the global economy, but we continue to monitor this closely," she said.
The US Secretary of the Treasury admitted that if the conflict escalates further, there will be risks for the prospects for the development of the global economy.
"We've worked very hard to make sure that the conflict between Israel and Gaza and Hamas doesn't expand into a larger regional conflict, but worried to do so. There could be significant economic spillovers. Fortunately, we haven't seen that," she stressed.
Yellen said that a couple of days ago she had sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which she expressed concern about the negative impact of the conflict on the economic development of Israel and Palestine.
"We're concerned about Israel's economy. We're also concerned about the West Bank economy. And I've written to the Prime Minister, to discuss my concerns about the West Bank and actions that Israel has taken that I believe are seriously impairing the West Bank economy, reducing income and also with the same time having an adverse impact on Israel," she stressed.
The decision to ban Westbank residents from working in Israel has a negative impact on incomes in the West Bank, she noted.
"Israel's also dependent on that labor force. And it's having an adverse a shortage of labor is having an adverse effect on Israel's economy. I'm also concerned about barriers to movement that Israel is set up within the West Bank that makes it difficult for commerce to take place. And these are issues that we were involved in," she said adding that Netanyahu has not received her letter yet. According to her, the Israeli authorities agreed to resume the transfer of tax revenues to Palestine, and funds have already begun to arrive.