The Burmese economy?

[darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx]

                       THE BURMESE ECONOMY?
 
The Burmese generals have recently been saying that they have
improved the economy.  This claim is contradicted by galloping
inflation and the increasing discrepancy between the official
exchange rate of the kyat (6 to the dollar) and the street
value (up to 200 to the dollar). It is contradicted also by
Burma's absolute failure to meet its recent rice export
commitments.  The "Financial Times" of 13 March 1997 states
that "Economic growth in Burma is slowing and the economic
situation is likely to worsen over the next several years,
according to a confidential report prepared by the
International Monetary Fund." See the Economist Intelligence
Unit's Myanmar report for the 1st quarter of 1997 for further
indications of the dire state of the economy.
 
But the most telling and tragic evidence of the decline in the
Burmese economy under military mismanagement is the
destabilising economic polarisation of society and the
increased poverty of the rural population. The World Bank
criticises the "large income transfers from the rural poor to
the urban elites (including the military)" [World Bank Report
No.14062-BA, October 16, 1995]. Over the past few years UNICEF
figures have shown high levels of malnutrition and infant and
maternal mortality. Reports are now starting to reach the
outside world of extensive starvation, particularly in the
non-Burman areas. Most reports refer to Eastern Burma, but the
latest reports deal with the Western regions. According to the
BBC World Service, quoting UN officials, more than 3000
starving Burmese refugees have arrived in Southeast Bangladesh
over the past two months. Some of these are refugees who have
been pushed back to Burma, and have returned  (See "STARVING
BURMESE ENTER BANGLADESH" in reg.burma and soc.cult burma of
14 June 97).
 
A responsible government would concentrate on feeding its
people, or would at least let them feed themselves without
being subject to army looting, extortion, forced relocation,
forced labour and all the other well-documented abuses carried
out by the soldiers in power in Burma.