Israel's economy hits standstill in second quarter of 2015
Xinhua, September 17, 2015 Adjust font size:
Israel's economy had hit a standstill and revised the growth rate for the second quarter of 2015 to only 0.1 percent, according to figures released on Thursday by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (ICBS).
Last month, the ICBS forecasted a 0.3 percent growth in the second quarter of 2015. In the first quarter of the year, the growth rate stood at 1.8 percent, compared to a much higher rate at the last quarter of 2014, 6.1 percent, according to the official figures, showing a substantial slowdown in the economy.
Furthermore, the figures show that private consumption in Israel rose by 0.6 percent and expenditure on public consumption grew by 0.4 percent, whereas exports of goods and services fell by 11.9 percent on an annualized basis.
Overall, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 2.5 percent in the first of 2015, after a previous estimate forecasted to reach 2.6 percent.
On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund said in a report that the Israeli economy is growing robustly but urged decision makers to tackle the high budget deficit, which poses a risk to the market's resilience.
It said the Israeli economy is set to expand by 2.5 percent in 2015, lower than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's four-percent target. Endit