Business sector debt declined by about 0.5 percent to around NIS 822 billion in April. Household debt remained almost unchanged, at around NIS 436 billion at the end of the month.[1]
The business sector’s outstanding debt
· In April, there was net raising of business sector debt, totaling about NIS 2.2 billion, through tradable bonds in Israel, bank loans and nonbank loans. With that, the total outstanding debt of the business sector declined by about NIS 4.2 billion (0.5 percent) to around NIS 822 billion in April, influenced mainly by the shekel’s appreciation vis-à-vis the dollar (about 3 percent), which lowered the shekel value of debt indexed to and denominated in foreign currency.
· In May, the business sector (excluding banks and insurance companies) issued about NIS 1.3 billion in bonds, all in tradable bonds. Further to the previous month, total issuances are lower than the average since the beginning of the year (NIS 2.7 billion).
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[1] In May 2015, following the preparation of financial statements for the first quarter of 2015, several banks amended the reports to the Bank of Israel for March 2015. These amendments affected outstanding debt of the business sector (an increase of about NIS 5 billion) and of households (a decline of about NIS 8 billion).