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The Composite State of the Economy Index for July 2013 increases by 0.2%
The Bank of Israel's Composite State of the Economy Index for July increased by 0.2 percent. The acceleration in the rate of increase in the Index in recent months, with the revisions in the index (Table 1), is due mainly to the acceleration in the right of business product growth in the second quarter[1], which was apparently significantly impacted by the start of natural gas production. Beyond that, the increase in the Index this month also reflects increases in the imports of manufacturing inputs and in the export of services, which were moderated by declines in the export of goods, the industrial production index, and the Trade Revenue and Services Revenue Indices. Index data for recent months were revised slightly upward both due to second quarter business product growth data which were published this month, and due to the upward revision in the imports of consumer products for June. Table 2 presents the changes in components of the Index in the past few months.
Table 1: Revisions in the Composite Index
[1] Quarterly business product growth data, which are not available when the monthly Composite Index is published, are included with a lag, such that the rate of the Index’s growth expresses the monthly rate of business product growth over time. Methodological adjustments by the Central Bureau of Statistics in how the National Accounts data, including business product, are calculated (which were published for the first time this month) led to revisions to the Composite Index from 2006.
Table 2: Changes in the Index components in recent months
(monthly percent change, unless otherwise noted)
1. The rate of job vacancies at its actual level, seasonally adjusted and divided.
2. Six-month moving average.
3. Foreign trade indices are quantitative.
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