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The Composite State of the Economy Index increased in March by 0.25 percent, and the Index readings for January and February were revised upward, reflecting continued slightly moderate growth in economic activity in the first quarter of the year.
The Index was positively influenced by increases in the import of consumption goods, the import of production inputs, goods exports, and credit card purchases (March), and the Industrial Production Index, the services revenue index, and the retail trade revenue index (February). In contrast, services exports, employee posts (January) declined, which negatively influenced the index.
The Index readings for January and February were revised upward due to the receipt of additional data for February and the revision of several indicators for previous months.
Table 1 presents the retroactive revisions to the Index for previous months. Table 2 presents the development of components of the Index in the past few months.
Table 1: Revisions in the Composite Index (percent)
|
Revision |
Previous figure |
New figure |
|
March |
|
0.25 |
|
February |
0.02 |
0.32 |
|
January 2025 |
0.18 |
0.29 |
|
December |
0.82 |
0.87 |
|
November |
0.23 |
0.29 |
|
October |
0.14 |
0.03 |
Table 2: Changes in the Index components in recent months
(monthly change, percent, unless otherwise noted)
|
|
March |
February |
January 2025 |
December |
|
Industrial Production Index (excluding mining and quarrying) |
|
1.9 |
-4.0 |
3.1 |
|
Services Revenue Index (excluding education and public administration) |
|
1.9 |
-2.1 |
5.3 |
|
Retail Trade Revenue Index |
|
1.1 |
-1.1 |
1.2 |
|
Imports of consumption goods1 |
5.7 |
-2.6 |
-5.1 |
-5.9 |
|
Imports of production inputs (excluding fuels)1 |
4.2 |
-4.1 |
-3.5 |
2.4 |
|
Goods exports (excluding agriculture)1 |
3.3 |
2.8 |
-5.4 |
12.0 |
|
Services exports (excluding transportation)2 |
|
|
-1.9 |
4.4 |
|
Employee posts in the private sector |
|
|
-0.1 |
0.1 |
|
Job vacancy rate in the business sector3 |
4.4 |
4.4 |
4.4 |
4.5 |
|
Credit card purchases5 |
3.3 |
0.7 |
-1.5 |
2.8 |
1 Goods imports and exports are calculated in fixed prices (adjusted for changes in foreign trade price indices).
2 Services exports are calculated in real terms using the Consumer Price Index, and are comprised of the export of other business services and the export of tourism services.
3 The job vacancy rate is calculated out of the total number of employed people, and is included in the index at its seasonally adjusted level.
4 The credit card purchases figure is the monthly seasonally adjusted change according to Central Bureau of Statistics publications. When the CBS figure for a month is not available, the figure listed is an estimate based on the monthly rate of change according to daily data from SHVA, seasonally adjusted.
Detailed explanations regarding how the Composite Index is calculated, as well as detailed long-term tables, can be found at: