UN General Assembly
1979

37. It was not only agriculture which suffered from the economic chaos of the Amin era, but also industry. The manufacturing sector was equally affected, as funds earmarked for the importation of raw materials were diverted to purchase military hardware and consumer goods for the army. Production in the textile industry fell from 55,000 metres in 1970 to 3,300 metres in 1978; cement production fell from 191,000 tons to 73,000 tons in 1978; copper production fell from 17,000 tons to 2,000 tons in 1976, when production came to a complete halt. 38. Financial institutions were forced under coercion to extend credit facilities to Amin's henchmen without any regard to their credit-worthiness. As a result such people defaulted and the financial institutions were forced to write off the loans as bad debts. 39. Instead of adopting rational fiscal policies, Amin's regime resorted to printing more money. We inherited an economy with a very high rate of inflation. Government borrowing from financial institutions increased from 35 per cent in December 1970, to 72 per cent in March 1979.