The Economist magazine ranked Israel as the fourth best economy in 2022. “In the Middle East, Israel has prospered over the past year despite the political chaos,” writes the British weekly.
The ranking of 34 OECD countries was compiled using five macroeconomic indicators: GDP growth, annual inflation, inflation breadth, stock prices and public debt. As the Israeli business magazine Globes reported last week, Israel’s debt (to GDP ratio) has fallen from 68 to 60 percent this year. Although inflation has risen to 5.3 percent over the past 12 months, this is only about half the rate of inflation in most western economies. The Economist’s international comparison shows an inflation advantage in countries whose energy is not based on Russian gas and oil, as is the case in Israel.
The small Jewish state is also doing well as an export country: Israel’s export of goods and services has risen steadily over the past ten years, with the exception of 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. Israel’s exports of goods and services will reach at least $160 billion (potentially as high as $165 billion) in 2022, a new record and a more than 10 percent increase, according to a conservative estimate by the Ministry of Economy and Industry’s Foreign Trade Administration last year, when exports of goods and services hit a then-record $144 billion.
Around 51 percent of exports are services and 49 percent are goods. This figure mainly reflects the sharp increase in exports of software, research and development services, which account for 42 percent and 14 percent of exported services, respectively.
Original Article Written By: Katharina Hoeftmann Ciobotaru
