In the Sahel region of Mauritania, a traditional subsistence economy composed of livestock raising, agriculture, crafts, and petty trading supports most of the population. In the Sahara region, however, a modern export economy is developing, based on the exploitation of iron ore and copper resources and of the rich fishing waters off the continental shelf. The Mauritanian economy receives much needed capital investment and technical assistance from abroad, and, in turn, it is sensitive to the vacillations in the world markets. More than three-fourths of the Mauritanian population engages in traditional activities, among which livestock raising is the most important. In numbers, goats and sheep are the most important livestock, followed by cattle and camels. Cattle are raised primarily in the southern region, whereas goats and sheep are dispersed as far north as the limits of the Sahara. Camels are raised mostly in the north and the centre, especially in the Adrar region. The growth of the Mauritanian economy slowed in the 1980s after a lengthy period of rapid expansion in the 1960s and ’70s. Since the severe drought in the early 1970s, the country has been dependent upon imported foodstuffs to feed its population. In the early 1980s iron ore production slowed because of a decline in world market prices; fishing became the leading source of foreign exchange earnings and remained so for much of the 1990s. In the mid-1990s the government began to demonstrate its commitment to the development of a tourist industry to further diversify the Mauritanian economy. (This was copied and pasted from another person so yeah)
