Economy - overview:
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
significant 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 influx of Jewish immigrants from the former USSR
during the period 1989-99, coupled with the opening of new markets
at the end of the Cold War, energized Israel's economy, which grew
rapidly in the early 1990s; growth began moderating in 1996 when the
government imposed tighter fiscal and monetary policies and the
immigration bonus petered out. Growth was a strong 7.2% in 2000, but
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.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $117.4 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
-0.8% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $19,500 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 3%
industry: 30%
services: 67% (2001 est.)
Population below poverty line:
18% (2001 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.4%
highest 10%: 28.3% (1997)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
35.5 (2001)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
5.7% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
2.5 million (2002 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
public services 31.2%, manufacturing 20.2%, finance and business
13.1%, commerce 12.8%, construction 7.5%, personal and other
services 6.4%, transport, storage, and communications 6.2%,
agriculture, forestry, and fishing 2.6% (1996)
Unemployment rate:
10.4% (2002 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $38.5 billion
expenditures: $45.1 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(2002 est.)
Industries:
high-technology projects (including aviation, communications,
computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics), wood
and paper products, potash and phosphates, food, beverages, and
tobacco, caustic soda, cement, diamond cutting
Industrial production growth rate:
-1.5% (2002 est.)
Electricity - production:
42.24 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 99.9%
hydro: 0.1%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
37.82 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
1.457 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2001)
Oil - production:
80 bbl/day NA bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
260,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
NA (2001)
Oil - imports:
NA (2001)
Oil - proved reserves:
1.92 million bbl (37257)
Natural gas - production:
10 million cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
10 million cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
20.81 billion cu m (37257)
Agriculture - products:
citrus, vegetables, cotton; beef, poultry, dairy products
Exports:
$28.1 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Exports - commodities:
machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural
products, chemicals, textiles and apparel
Exports - partners:
US 39.2%, Belgium 6.5%, Germany 4.4%, UK 4.2% (2002)
Imports:
$30.8 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities:
raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough
diamonds, fuels, grain, consumer goods
Imports - partners:
US 21.6%, Belgium 8.9%, Germany 6.7%, UK 6.6%, Switzerland 4.9%,
Italy 4.5% (2002)
Debt - external:
$42.8 billion (2001 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
$720 million from US (2001 est.)
Currency:
new Israeli shekel (ILS); note - NIS is the currency abbreviation;
ILS is the International Organization for Standarization (ISO) code
for the NIS
Currency code:
ILS
Exchange rates:
new Israeli shekels per US dollar - 4.74 (2002), 4.21 (2001), 4.08
(2000), 4.14 (1999), 3.8 (1998)
Fiscal year:
calendar year