Capital Market

The volume of trade between Israel and India, including diamond exports, totaled about $ 3.8 billion in 2017, a decrease of about 9% compared to 2016, when trade amounted to $ 4.2 billion. Exports of goods to India, including diamonds, declined by 20 percent to $ 1.9 billion in 2017, while imports of diamonds, including diamonds, rose by 6 percent to a similar volume

The government unanimously approved the Finance Minister's proposal for the State Budget and the 2019 Economic Plan * The state budget in 2019 will amount to NIS 397.3 billion, the education budget will amount to NIS 60 billion,

The S&P credit rating company announced that it has upgraded Israel's credit rating from A + to AA -, the highest rating Israel has ever won. Raising the rating is a very significant achievement for the Israeli economy and expresses confidence in the ability of the economy to grow and the government's ability to maintain a responsible fiscal policy. On the practical level, it will allow the government to raise funds under better conditions

The economic and bureaucratic situation of the State of Israel is not encouraging: The 2018 World Economic Forum's (WEF) 2018 International Competitiveness Index reveals that Israel has fallen to 20th place in the International Competition Index from 16th place in the past year. This is a new competitive index - GCI 4.0, which includes weights and other parameters that were not taken into account in past indices. The top five places in the new competitiveness index were the United States, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland and Japan respectively, while the last and least respected (140) in the...

The Bank of Israel announced the cessation of the foreign currency purchases program aimed at offsetting the effect of gas production on the exchange rate, which began at the end of the tenure of former Governor Stanley Fischer, coinciding with the end of the term of the Governor, Karnit Flug. The dollar posted a sharp drop, moving from a 0.2% rise to a drop of 0.36% and is now trading around NIS 3.6767

The annual report published by the Ministry of Finance attests to a downward trend in the extent of wage deviations: if at the time of establishment of the unit in 1997, the rate of bodies with wage deviations was 62% of all reporting bodies, this year the rate dropped to 10.5%. The sector in which the highest level of irregularities is the supported bodies, which includes non-profit organizations and institutions of higher education, also saw a significant decrease in the extent of the phenomenon: only 17% of the subsidized bodies found wage deviations compared to 33% last year.

Bezeq published its fifth report on the state of the Internet in Israel to summarize the year 2018. The report reviews the habits and behavior of Israelis in the digital era and is based on extensive research conducted by the company on the Internet in Israel, the trends that govern it and its various uses, as well as data from the company's operations and systems. The report shows that at the end of 2018 the number of Internet users in Israel stands at approximately 6.6 million. The average surfer now downloads 8GB of files per day, up 30% in just one year. 36% of the youth pay for music....

The Companies Survey for the first quarter of 2019 reflects a moderation in the rate of expansion of business sector activity. The net balance of the business sector declined in the first quarter of 2019 to close to zero. In the services, trade and industry sectors, the Bank of Israel expects expansion in the next quarter. In the last quarter the rise in the net balance of output in the manufacturing industry was halted in the previous two quarters. The net balance of output in the last quarter was negligible but insignificant, especially among companies whose level of innovation is mixed,...