Articles by July, 2021

The Minister of Finance, Avigdor Lieberman, and the Minister of Agriculture, Oded Forer, are promoting a plan to reduce tariffs on fruit, vegetables and eggs, with the aim of opening up the market to imports. The egg industry is currently planned and consumer prices are monitored by the state. There are imports of fruits and vegetables, which usually leads to rising prices. Tomatoes occasionally have duty-free imports to balance market prices when they are high. According to farmers, opening the market to duty-free imports will hurt agriculture in Israel - the heads of the regional councils...

The Israeli company PandoLogic, which assists large companies in recruiting employees through artificial intelligence, is being sold to the American company Veritone for $ 150 million in cash and shares, the American company announced. Veriton, based in Costa Mesa, California, is developing the first artificial intelligence operating system, and the acquisition will allow it to expand into the field of manpower and recruitment. The deal consists of $ 50 million in cash, $ 35 million in Veriton shares, and $ 65 million in cash and shares - another amount that depends on the company's...

The International Fund for Compensation from Oil Pollution has approved the Ministry of Environmental Protection's request for compensation for the extensive tar pollution that hit the shores of Israel in February. All member states of the Fund's Board of Directors unanimously supported the proposal of the Fund's Director and the Secretariat to approve compensation payments to Israel for the damage to the beaches. Israel, which has been a member of the fund since 2006, estimated the direct expenses as a result of the pollution at NIS 50 million, with the next step being the establishment of...

Data released by the Ministry of Health shows that yesterday 1,430 people were diagnosed as positive for Corona. Of the approximately 87,000 corona tests conducted yesterday - 1.66% were interpreted as positive. From midnight on Friday until the end of Shabbat, another 670 Corona carriers were diagnosed in Israel. Over the weekend there was an increase in the number of critically ill patients, and it now stands at 89, of which 18 are connected to respirators. Prof. Eran Segal, component of the Weizmann Institute's corona prediction model, who revealed some of the morbidity data as early as...

The Israeli payment company Pioneer (Payoneer) was fined $ 1.4 million by the US Treasury Department for violating 2,260 different sanctions in a large number of countries, including Iran and Syria. Other countries include Ukraine, Sudan and violations of sanctions against individuals who are defined as barriers to money transfers by US authorities. According to the Ministry of Finance report between 2018-2013, Pioneer processed 2,241 payments to entities located in the Crimea, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria as well as 19 violations of sanctions by individuals who are blocked by the US...

The Minister of Finance, Avigdor Lieberman, has decided to increase the income supplement for seniors. The benefit will increase by almost NIS 500 per person. The Ministry of Finance says that the move means that exercising the rights to receive income supplementation will allow the elderly to receive income above the poverty line. Income supplement is paid to adults whose income is low, usually without a pension, and who are mainly based on an old-age pension. The average benefit today is NIS 3,230 per person per month, and will now increase to at least NIS 3,710 per month. This amount is...

The monthly review of the chief economist at the Ministry of Finance, Shira Greenberg, published, reveals unsurprising data for May, when there was another increase in the purchase of apartments throughout Israel. In May, 12.5 thousand apartments were purchased, an increase of 40% compared to May 2019 and an increase of 15% compared to last April. Comparing the level of transactions in the free market last May to its counterparts in the last twenty years, it is found that this is the second highest level, and is only ahead of the level of sales in May 2013. In the market segment of new...

Israel will end 2021 with a deficit of 6.8%, and 2022 with a deficit of 3.9%. After that, the reduced outline of the deficit will continue until 2026, when it will stand at 1.5%, according to the draft decision of the state budget, which the Ministry of Finance submitted to government members this morning. Towards the approval of the budget: The Ministry of Finance distributed to the government ministers the main points of the state budget, which includes the budget framework and the new deficit ceiling, along with the distribution of the budget according to government ministries and the...

Friday morning, President Yitzhak Herzog and his wife Michal received the third vaccine against Corona virus. "This is a very important step for the sake of social solidarity in the State of Israel," said President Herzog at the opening of the campaign to receive the complementary dose at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer. "We are launching, we are launching a vaccination campaign to protect the adults in the State of Israel," said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who accompanied the Herzog couple. "From today there is a new mitzvah - Hassan your father and mother for the sake of prolonging...

The government is expected to discuss the budget bill tomorrow and it will approve it. This is the first time that the Israeli government has approved a budget in the last three years. A political majority for a budget is guaranteed after 17 government ministers pledged to support it. The ministers demand budget increases of NIS 12-14 billion a year, they will criticize various items, the discussion will continue until late at night until Monday morning, but in the end the budget must be approved by the government. It was initially planned to continue the budget discussions on Thursday,...