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Report: Israel GDP grew at 6.8 per cent in Q2 

August 16, 2022 at 8:09 pm

A woman shops at a street market in the center of Israel’s Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv on December 1, 2021 [MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images]

Israel’s GDP grew by 6.8 per cent on an annual basis in the second quarter of 2022, after contracting by 2.7 per cent in the first quarter, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday.

The Bureau attributed the economic growth to the return to a post-Covid routine following the sixth wave of the pandemic in the first quarter of this year, which caused hundreds of thousands of workers to be guaranteed and affected the GDP.

The growth was also attributed to recoveries in the tourism, aviation, hospitality, restaurant and transport services sectors, according to the same source.

Private consumption per capita rose by 8 per cent in the second quarter, the Bureau added.

READ: Israel tourism rebounds in July, still well below pre-COVID levels

On Monday, the Bureau said the inflation rate rose to 5.2 per cent last July.

These data mean that the Bank of Israel could raise the interest rate by 0.75 per cent by next week to curb inflation, especially since the risks of economic stagnation are currently minimal.

The difference between growth and output stems from a relatively large wave of immigration to Israel, from Russia and Ukraine in the aftermath of the Russian troops’ invasion of Ukraine which caused the population of Israel to increase more than the usual rate.