Israel approves budget cuts and deficit target rise for 2017-2018

The Israeli government on Friday approved the state budget for the years of 2017-2018, with a series of budget cuts and a rise in the deficit target.

The ministers unanimously approved the financial plan after a marathon overnight session. The vote means the budget is expected to be brought for the Knesset (parliament) approval in October or November.

The financial plan stipulates an 8.3 percent growth in the state budget between 2016 and 2018, setting the budget for 2017 at 359.7 billion shekels (about 94.4 billion U.S. dollars,) and at 376.7 billion shekels (about 98.8 billion dollars) for 2018.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon lauded the budget. "The budget has significant growth engines and an increase of billions in the social budgets," he said in a statement after the approval.

The plan set the deficit target at 2.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), compared to about 2.5 percent of the GDP in 2016.

On Thursday, Karnit Flug, the Governor of Israel's central bank criticized the government's plan to raise the deficit, calling the ministers to curb the government's increasing spending.

The new deficit target "exposes the economy to the risk" of falling into higher debts if the macroeconomic developments will turn out to be less positive, even slightly, than the forecast upon which the budget was drafted, Flug said in a statement.

"Such an increase of the deficit," she added, "may make it more difficult for fiscal policy in the future to support economic activity precisely during periods when conditions may be less favorable." Endit