The Bank of Israel's Composite State of the Economy Index for July 2017 increased by 0.2 percent, similar to the previous month.  The Index was affected by a decline in goods exports and increases in the Industrial Production index and the revenue indices for June (Table 2).  The increase in the Index continues to indicate continued expansion of economic activity at a stable pace of the past half-year. Looking more broadly, the increase in the Index over the past six months (an average pace of about 0.2 percent) is slightly more moderate than the average during 2016 (about 0.4 percent). 

 

The Composite Index figures for recent months were revised slightly downward (Table 1).  The downward revision for April is more significant, as it derives from the publication of GDP growth figures that were lower than expected in the second quarter, and the decline in goods exports in that month.

 

Table 2 presents the development of components of the Index in the past few months.

 

 

 

Table 1: Revisions in the Composite Index

Revision

Previous data

New data

July

 

0.24

June

0.32

0.28

May

0.25

0.21

April

0.34

0.15

 

 


 

 

 

Table 2: Changes in the Index components in recent months

(monthly percent change, unless otherwise noted)

 

July 2017

June 2017

May 2017

April 2017

Industrial Production Index (excluding mining and quarrying)

 

1.9

-3.8

4.2

Services Revenue Index (excluding education and public administration)

 

2.1

-1.5

0.7

Retail Trade Revenue Index

 

2.0

-3.2

1.9

Imports of consumer goods1

1.3

-0.3

-1.6

2.4

Imports of manufacturing inputs (excluding fuels)1

-0.1

-4.8

0.7

4.3

Goods exports (excluding agriculture) 1

-8.4

-2.4

0.4

-5.0

Services exports (excluding transportation) 1

 

 

-1.1 

3.0

Number of employee posts in the private sector

 

 

0.2

0.1

Rate of vacant employee posts out of total number of employed people in the business sector2

3.9

3.8

3.8

3.8

1 Foreign trade indices are quantitative (in contrast to CBS monthly foreign trade indices).

2 The job vacancy rate is included in the Index at its level, seasonally adjusted and smoothed.

 

For additional data and explanations please click here.

http://www.boi.org.il/en/Research/Pages/ind.aspx

 

 

 

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