Экономика Гвинеи-Бисау: история и современное состояние.

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The economy of Guinea Bissau comprises a mixture of state owned and private companies. Guinea Bissau is among the world's least developed nations and one of the 10 poorest countries in the world, and depends mainly on agriculture and fishing. Cashew crops have increased remarkably in recent years, and the country ranked ninth in cashew production for the year 2019. Guinea Bissau exports to Asia non fillet frozen fish and seafood, peanuts, palm kernels, and timber. License fees for fishing in their sea zone (Gulf of Guinea) provide the government with some small revenue. Rice is the major crop and staple food. Due to European regulations, fish and cashew nuts exports to Europe are totally prohibited as well as agriculture products in general.

From a European viewpoint, the economic history of the Guinea Coast is largely associated with slavery. Indeed, one of the alternative names for the region was the Slave Coast. When the Portuguese first sailed down the Atlantic coast of Africa in the 1430s, they were interested in gold. Ever since Mansa Musa, king of the Mali Empire, made his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325, with 500 slaves and 100 camels (each carrying gold) the region had become synonymous with such wealth. The trade from sub Saharan Africa was controlled by the Islamic Empire which stretched along Africa's northern coast. Muslim trade routes across the Sahara, which had existed for centuries, involved salt, kola, textiles, fish, grain and slaves. As the Portuguese extended their influence around the coast, Mauritania, Senegambia (by 1445) and Guinea, they created trading posts. Rather than becoming direct competitors to the Muslim merchants, the expanding market opportunities in Europe and the Mediterranean resulted in increased trade across the Sahara. In addition, the Portuguese merchants gained access to the interior via the Sénégal and Gambia rivers which bisected long standing trans Saharan routes. The Portuguese brought in copper ware, cloth, tools, wine and horses. Trade goods soon also included arms and ammunition. In exchange, the Portuguese received gold (transported from mines of the Akan deposits), pepper (a trade which lasted until Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498) and ivory. and severe food shortages, also left marks. Luís Cabral served from 1974 to 1980, when a military coup d'état led by João Bernardo "Nino" Vieira deposed him. Despite having always denied it, Luís Cabral was accused of being responsible for the death of a large number of black Guinea Bissauan soldiers who had fought along with the Portuguese Army against the PAIGC guerrillas during the Portuguese Colonial War. After the military coup, in 1980 PAIGC admitted in its official newspaper "Nó Pintcha" (dated November 29, 1980) that many were executed and buried in unmarked collective graves in the woods of Cumerá, Portogole and Mansabá. All these events did not help the new country to reach the level of prosperity, economic growth and development the new rulers had promised to its population. In 1985 the first Chinese oversees fishing fleet to go abroad was sent to Guinea Bissau, 13 trawlers from the China National Fisheries Corporation. In May 1997 Guinea Bissau joined the francophone West African Monetary Union. Consequently, National Bank of Guinea Bissau was converted as a national branch of Central Bank of West African States, and the national currency Guinea Bissau peso was replaced by West African CFA franc.

The financial sector of Guinea Bissau is relatively underdeveloped: in 2013, financial intermediation accounted for 4% of GDP, banking penetration is below 1% of the population (IMF 2013. Article IV Consultations – Guinea Bissau, IMF Country Report No 13/197) and access to finance is cited as the second most important constraint for businesses. As of 2015, only four banks were operating in the country. According to the IMF, regional private foreign banks held about 65% of shares in the Bissau Guinean banking system (IMF 2013). Banks are regulated by the WAEMU authorities. In the aftermath of the civil war (1998/1999), private sector credit had fallen below 1% of GDP. In 2003 the balance sheets of banks amounted to EUR 21.3 million. Since then credit to the economy has risen to nearly 13.8% of GDP. Hosted by the European Union with support from the UNDP and other partners including the African Development Bank and the World Bank, the country's major partners joined in welcoming the country's new vision up to 2025, and to put pledges forth for its strategic and operational plan dubbed "Terra Ranka" (A fresh start). Pledges totalled EUR 1.3 billion.

In the 1980s Guinea Bissau was part of a trend in the African continent toward the dumping of waste as a source of income. Plans to import toxic waste from Europe were cancelled after an international campaign to halt the trade. The government was offered a contract to dispose of 15 million tons of toxic waste over a 15 year period. The income from it was equivalent to twice the value of its external debt. After strong pressure from other African countries and environmental groups the Guinea Bissau government renounced the deal.

Over the last decade European consumption of cocaine is believed to have tripled, and West Africa has become a primary transit point for trafficking the drug from Colombia to Europe. Guinea Bissau is the leading West African country in this regard, with smugglers taking advantage of government corruption and disorder to operate unimpeded. The army and police are alleged to be complicit, and a lack of boats or planes to patrol or control the vast sea zone further brings them to turn a blind eye to cocaine shipments from Latin America. The local population does not have access to the drug. Planes fly in, and use Guinea Bissau's 88 remote islands, the majority of which are uninhabited.

As of 2019, only 28% of the total population had access to electricity, with only 7% of rural population and 56% of urban population having access to electricity. In 2016, 99% of electricity generation capacity came from fossil sources and 1% from renewable sources.