State receipts remained high until 1980, although public expenditures tended increasingly to exceed public revenues. The country also appeared to regain some credibility by starting to repay part of the interest on the huge national debt. But hopes placed in the stabilization program were quickly dashed. When the revenue stream from the core mining industry dried up, Zaire virtually ceased to exist as a state. The currency, a symbol of national sovereignty, was reduced to nothing, while 500,000 to 600,000 public servants went unpaid.
Public finances are in disarray. . . .
The economy has been demonetized and exchange markets have contracted and serve mostly speculatory purposes. . . . When open at all, the schools operate in deplorable conditions, without textbooks and teaching materials and with the students often forced to sit on the floor as desks have been looted. . . . Higher education institutions . Health standards deteriorated due to inadequate and declining financing. In 1986, the government was financing only 5 percent of the recurrent costs in the health sector, compared to 50 percent or more in most sub-Saharan African countries. . . .