However, despite discouragement from Government, churches and non-governmental organisations have felt morally obliged to render as much assistance as they can to the displaced persons, given the fact that Government itself is not rendering any such assistance. They have continued to give assistance, often clandestinely . One source 33 has indicated that international assistance from one foreign government has at least reached US$1,000,000, but it is not clear whether this has been given through governmental sources or through churches and NGOs. Charity and church officials have said that the Government is blocking attempts to deliver aid to the displaced. “They tell us we are trying to embarrass the Government when we distribute food and blankets," one aid worker said. They say we are from the Opposition.” However, in a news report dated 24 June 2005, it was suggested that the Government had done a U-turn on humanitarian assistance from non-governmental organisations. This report suggested that the Government had become “alarmed at the humanitarian crisis caused by large-scale dislocation of families, and had tasked two Ministers to appeal for help from NGOs and churches to rehabilitate affected families and assist in the reconstruction of homes”. The report suggested that the President and the Cabinet had endorsed the plan to make this appeal after realising that the Government had not adequately planned for the after effects of the ‘clean-up’ operation. The economic impact The information for this was provided by a leading Zimbabwean economist. He commented at the outset that economic data in Zimbabwe are increasingly suspect, and that, furthermore, by definition, there are no reliable data on the informal sector in any economy. Accordingly, what follows draws in part on official and IMF numbers insofar as the formal sector is concerned. The informal sector data are drawn from what is seen as a somewhat unreliable World Bank study of the informal sector around the world, and estimates of the cost of the current campaign are then extrapolated from this. The Formal Economy GDP has fallen more than a third in real terms since 1998. On a per capita basis, income per head has declined 36% since 1998. In 2005, GDP is forecast to fall 5% to 6%, and, with population growth estimated to be flat, income per head will fall by the same amount. Real per capita incomes in 2005 will be the lowest since the 1960s. They are now about half their peak level of Z$2 280 (at 1990 prices) which was reached in 1991. Formal sector employment peaked at 1 350 000 to 1 400 000 in 1998. Latest official figures put employment at 1 100 000 in 2003, but these assume that there were still over 250