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Economy - overview:
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Israel has a technologically
advanced market economy with substantial government
participation. It depends on imports of crude oil, grains, raw
materials, and military equipment. Despite limited natural
resources, Israel has intensively developed its agricultural and
industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Israel imports
substantial quantities of grain, but is largely self-sufficient
in other agricultural products. Cut diamonds, high-technology
equipment, and agricultural products (fruits and vegetables) are
the leading exports. Israel usually posts sizable current
account deficits, which are covered by large transfer payments
from abroad and by foreign loans. Roughly half of the
government's external debt is owed to the US, which is its major
source of economic and military aid. The bitter
Israeli-Palestinian conflict; difficulties in the
high-technology, construction, and tourist sectors; and fiscal
austerity in the face of growing inflation led to small declines
in GDP in 2001 and 2002. The economy grew at 1% in 2003, with
improvements in tourism and foreign direct investment. In 2004,
rising business and consumer confidence - as well as higher
demand for Israeli exports boosted GDP by 3.9%. |
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GDP:
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purchasing power parity - $129
billion (2004 est.) |
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GDP - real growth rate:
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3.9% (2004 est.) |
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GDP - per capita:
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purchasing power parity - $20,800
(2004 est.) |
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GDP - composition by sector:
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agriculture: 2.8%
industry: 37.7%
services: 59.5% (2003 est.) |
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Investment (gross fixed):
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17.6% of GDP (2004 est.)
|
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Population below poverty
line:
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18% (2001 est.) |
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Household income or
consumption by percentage share:
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lowest 10%: 2.4%
highest 10%: 28.3% (1997) |
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Distribution of family
income - Gini index:
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35.5 (2001) |
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Inflation rate (consumer
prices):
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0% (2004 est.) |
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Labor force:
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2.68 million (2004 est.)
|
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Labor force - by occupation:
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agriculture, forestry, and fishing
2.6%, manufacturing 20.2%, construction 7.5%, commerce 12.8%,
transport, storage, and communications 6.2%, finance and
business 13.1%, personal and other services 6.4%, public
services 31.2% (1996) |
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Unemployment rate:
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10.7% (2004 est.) |
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Budget:
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revenues: $48.09 billion
expenditures: $52.11 billion, including capital
expenditures of NA (2004 est.) |
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Public debt:
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104.5% of GDP (2004 est.)
|
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Agriculture - products:
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citrus, vegetables, cotton; beef,
poultry, dairy products |
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Industries:
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high-technology projects (including
aviation, communications, computer-aided design and
manufactures, medical electronics, fiber optics), wood and paper
products, potash and phosphates, food, beverages, and tobacco,
caustic soda, cement, construction, metals products, chemical
products, plastics, diamond cutting, textiles and footwear
|
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Industrial production growth
rate:
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4.5% (2004 est.) |
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Electricity - production:
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42.67 billion kWh (2002)
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Electricity - consumption:
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38.3 billion kWh (2002)
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Electricity - exports:
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1.387 billion kWh (2002)
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Electricity - imports:
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0 kWh (2002) |
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Oil - production:
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80 bbl/day (2001 est.) |
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Oil - consumption:
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260,000 bbl/day (2001 est.) |
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Oil - exports:
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NA |
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Oil - imports:
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NA |
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Oil - proved reserves:
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1.92 million bbl (1 January 2002)
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Natural gas - production:
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10 million cu m (2001 est.)
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Natural gas - consumption:
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10 million cu m (2001 est.)
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Natural gas - exports:
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0 cu m (2001 est.) |
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Natural gas - imports:
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0 cu m (2001 est.) |
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Natural gas - proved
reserves:
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20.81 billion cu m (1 January 2002)
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Current account balance:
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$211.9 million (2004 est.)
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Exports:
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$34.41 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
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Exports - commodities:
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machinery and equipment, software,
cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, textiles and
apparel |
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Exports - partners:
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US 36.8%, Belgium 7.5%, Hong Kong
4.9% (2004) |
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Imports:
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$36.84 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
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Imports - commodities:
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raw materials, military equipment,
investment goods, rough diamonds, fuels, grain, consumer goods
|
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Imports - partners:
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US 15%, Belgium 10.1%, Germany
7.5%, Switzerland 6.5%, UK 6.1% (2004) |
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Reserves of foreign exchange
& gold:
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$28.48 billion (2004 est.)
|
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Debt - external:
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$74.46 billion (2004 est.)
|
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Economic aid - recipient:
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$662 million from US (2003 est.)
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Currency:
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new Israeli shekel (ILS); note -
NIS is the currency abbreviation; ILS is the International
Organization for Standarization (ISO) code for the NIS
|
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Currency code:
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ILS |
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Exchange rates:
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new Israeli shekels per US dollar -
4.482 (2004), 4.5541 (2003), 4.7378 (2002), 4.2057 (2001),
4.0773 (2000) |
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Fiscal year:
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calendar year |
