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Graphs & Data
v Israel’s surplus of assets over liabilities vis-à-vis abroad declined during the third quarter of 2013 by about $0.6 billion (1 percent), to about $57 billion at the end of September. An increase of $6.4 billion (2.7 percent) in the value of Israelis’ liabilities to abroad was partly offset by an increase of $5.8 billion (2 percent) in the value of assets held abroad by Israelis.
v The increase in the value of the asset portfolio was the result of a combination of the flow of investment in tradable securities abroad ($3.4 billion), direct investment abroad ($1.5 billion), and price increase on markets abroad.
v The increase in the gross balance of liabilities to abroad derived mainly from price increases on Israeli and foreign markets and from the flow of direct investment of nonresidents in Israel ($2.2 billion, or 2.7 percent), which were partly offset by realizations of government bonds in Israel ($2.3 billion, or 7.3 percent).
v In the third quarter of 2013, the gross external debt to GDP ratio continued to decline, by another 2 percentage points, to 32.3 percent at the end of September.
v The surplus of assets over liabilities vis-à-vis abroad in debt instruments alone (negative net external debt) increased in the third quarter of 2013 by about $1.3 billion (1.7 percent), and reached about $78.4 billion at the end of September.
Israel's net assets abroad (the surplus of assets over liabilities) increased by about $0.6 billion (1 percent) during the third quarter of 2013, to around $57 billion at the end of September. An increase of $6.4 billion (2.7 percent) in the value of Israelis’ liabilities abroad was partly offset by an increase of $5.8 billion (2 percent) in assets held abroad by Israelis (Table 1 and Figure 1). During the year to date in 2013, there has been essentially no change in the surplus of assets over liabilities vis-à-vis abroad. With that, there was an increase of about $8 billion in the surplus of debt instruments alone (negative net external debt), which was about $78 billion at the end of September.
The balance of Israel's assets abroad increased in the third quarter of 2013 by about $5.8 billion (2 percent), to about $298 billion at the end of September.
The value of the tradable securities portfolio increased by about $6.3 billion (7.6 percent). The increase in the portfolio value was composed of net investment flow of $2.3 billion (4.7 percent) in stocks and $1.1 billion (3.4 percent) in foreign bonds, mostly by institutional investors (about $2.5 billion), in addition to price increases on markets abroad, which increased the stock portfolio by about $2.7 billion (5.4 percent). For the year to date, the value of the tradable portfolio increased by about $13.5 billion, primarily through net investment flow ($9 billion).
Other investments declined by about $4.2 billion (7.5 percent), of which about $2 billion were net withdrawals of deposits by Israeli banks from foreign banks and about $1.8 billion was a decline in credit to customers.
Direct investment abroad increased by about $1.4 billion, distributed among various industries.
Reserve assets increased by $1.7 billion during the third quarter of 2013.
There were changes in the composition of residents' securities portfolio abroad during the third quarter of 2013—the share of stocks in the tradable portfolio increased by about 1.9 percent, while there were declines in the share of deposits in foreign banks abroad (1.2 percent) and in credit (1 percent). (Figure 2).
The balance of Israel's liabilities to abroad increased during the third quarter of 2013 by about $6.4 billion (2.7 percent), and reached $241 billion. The flow of direct investment in the economy in the third quarter totaled about $2.2 billion (2.7 percent). For the year to date, the flow of direct investment has been about $10.5 billion. The value of the tradable securities portfolio increased by $3.1 billion. Price increases on stock markets in Israel and abroad increased the value of nonresidents’ stock portfolio by about $2.6 billion, and there was net investment flow of about $0.9 billion. In contrast, nonresidents realized about $2.3 billion in government bonds in Israel. In the third quarter, other investments by nonresidents in the Israeli economy declined by about $0.9 billion. Credit extended by nonresidents declined by about $0.5 billion, together with withdrawals by foreign banks and nonresidents from Israeli banks of about $0.3 billion. The value of nonresidents' financial portfolio on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange declined during the third quarter of 2013 by around $0.2 billion, and at the end of September was $29 billion. The decline is primarily the result of realizations of government bonds by nonresidents which were partly offset by the increased market prices and by the net investment flow in the stock portfolio (Figure 3). The net external debt The surplus of assets over liabilities abroad in debt instruments alone (negative net external debt) increased by about $1.3 billion (1.7 percent) in the third quarter of 2013, and reached $78 billion at the end of September (Figure 5). From the beginning of 2013 the negative net external debt increased by about $8 billion (around 11 percent). The balance of short-term debt assets was $123 billion at the end of September 2013, a coverage ratio of 2.9 of short-term debt. 
