All SLORCed up

26 September 2007 By Martin Hutchinson

Most countries where humanitarian intervention is contemplated are basket cases. Intervention can do little to bring prosperity. Burma s different. It s surrounded by Asian tigers and could be one, too. The best Western remedy would be to find a new leader.

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President Bush announced new sanctions against the Burmese government at the United Nations on September 25th. Repression of continued protests in Rangoon and Mandalay led to six fatalities on the following day. Burma has been under military rule since 1960; since 1988 the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) has ruled. Elections in 1990 which produced a victory for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi were annulled. Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Burma has a population of 47.3m, increasing at 0.8% per annum, with 91% literacy. Its GDP at market exchange rates was $9.6bn in 2006, or $1,800 per capita at purchasing power parity, with inflation of 21% and a growth rate of 3%. The state budget deficit is 2% of GDP on spending of 25% of GDP and the payments surplus is 13% of GDP.

Burma ranked 179th (bottom) on Transparency International's 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index, published on September 26th.

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