Israels trade deficit increases by 7.9% over eight months in 2014 A monthly report on Israels foreign trade, issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics Israel (CBS), on Thursday, said that the deficit in the Israeli trade balance during the first eight months of this year rose by 7.87 per cent to 36 billion shekels ($10 billion), compared to the same period last year. According to the report, a copy of which was obtained by Anadolu News Agency, the deficit of the first eight months in 2014 increased by 2.6 billion shekels ($743 million, compared to the corresponding period last year), reaching approximately 33.4 billion shekels ($9.27 billion) until the end of August 2013. According to the CBS data, Israels total imports of goods during the current year (until the end of August) is nearly 175 billion shekels ($48.6 billion), compared to exports, which amounted to 139 billion shekels ($38.6 billion) during the same period. The report highlighted the decline in imports of raw materials during the first eight months by 9.5 per cent compared to the same period last year; while Israeli technological exports continued to decline (no percentage was specified in the report). In the past five years, Israel advanced technology industry has excelled, and was one of the first global countries to deal with high-tech exports, with total exports of technological commodities amounting to $40 billion in the past year out of $93 billion in exports of goods and services in total.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 23:00:01 +0000