rts and contain inflation. Although poverty continues to be
significant problem in Zambia, its economy has strengthened,
featuring single-digit inflation, a relatively stable currency,
decreasing interest rates, and increasing levels of trade.
Zimbabwe
The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of
difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable
fiscal deficit, an overvalued official exchange rate,
hyperinflation, and bare store shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in
the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drained hundreds of
millions of dollars from the economy. The government's land reform
program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly damaged the
commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and
foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe
into a net importer of food products. The EU and the US provide food
aid on humanitarian grounds. Badly needed support from the IMF has
been suspended because of the government's arrears on past loans and
the government's unwillingness to enact reforms that would stabilize
the economy. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe routinely prints money to
fund the budget deficit, causing the official annual inflation rate
to rise from 32% in 1998, to 133% in 2004, 585% in 2005, passed
1000% in 2006, and 26000% in November 2007. Private sector estimates
of inflation in 2007 are well above 100,000%. Meanwhile, the
official exchange rate fell from approximately 1 (revalued)
Zimbabwean dollar per US dollar in 2003 to 30,000 per US dollar in
2007.
This page was last updated on 18 December 2008
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@2117 Pipelines (km)
Afghanistan
gas 466 km (2007)
Albania
gas 339 km; oil 207 km (2007)
Algeria
condensate 1,532 km; gas 13,861 km; liquid petroleum gas
2,408 km; oil 6,878 km (2007)
Angola
gas 234 km; liquid petroleum gas 85 km; oil 896 km;
oil/gas/water 5 km (2007)
Argentina
gas 28,657 km; liquid petroleum gas 41 km; oil 5,607 km;
refined products 3,052 km; unknown (oil/water) 13 km (2007)
Armenia
gas 2,036 km (2007)
Australia
condensate/gas 469 km; gas 26,719 km; liquid petroleum gas
240 km; oil 3,720 km; oil/gas/water 110 km (2007)
Austria
gas 2,722 km; oil 663 km; refined products 157 km (2007)
Azerbaijan
gas 3,857 km; oil 2,436 km (2007)
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