Israel’s fiscal deficit widened to 3.4% of GDP at the end of November 2023 and the Accountant General forecasts it will reach 4% by the end of the year.
Israel’s fiscal deficit widened to 3.4% of GDP at the end of November 2023, amounting to NIS 62.3 billion over the past 12 months, the Ministry of Finance Accountant General Division reports. Israel’s fiscal deficit was up from 1.5% at the end of September and 2.6% at the end of October.
With government spending growing since the start of the war and revenues shrinking, the fiscal deficit is expected to reach 4% by the end of 2023, when the original forecast in the budget, before the outbreak of the war, was just 0.9%.
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In November alone the fiscal deficit amounted to NIS 16.7 billion compared with NIS 1.7 billion in November 2022. Since the start of the year the fiscal deficit amounts to NIS 43.8 billion.
In November 2023, government spending amounted to NIS 47 billion and has totaled NIS 445 billion since the start of the year. War expenditure alone amounted to an estimated NIS 5.8 billion in November.
Government revenues have amounted to NIS 401.5 billion since the start of 2023, down 6.2% from NIS 427.9 billion over the same period of 2022.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on December 10, 2023.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.
Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich credit: Danny Shem Tov Knesset Spokesperson
