The Bank of Israel's Composite State of the Economy Index for January increased by 0.25 percent. The Index’s rate of increase continues to reflect stable growth at the long-term pace.
The Index was positively affected primarily by an increase in the import of manufacturing inputs and an increase in exports in January, as well as by increases in the retail trade and services revenue indices. The Index’s growth rate was moderated primarily by a decline in the import of consumer goods, which is largely a correction of the sharp increase in the previous month in view of vehicle purchases being brought forward to December. There were no major revisions to the overall Index for previous months (Table 1). Table 2 presents the development of components of the Index in the past few months.
Table 1: Revisions in the Composite Index
|
Revision |
Previous data |
New data |
|
January 2020 |
|
0.25 |
|
December 2019 |
0.26 |
0.26 |
|
November 2019 |
0.24 |
0.23 |
|
October 2019 |
0.29 |
0.27 |
Table 2: Changes in the Index components in recent months
(monthly percent change, unless otherwise noted)
|
|
January 2020 |
December 2019 |
November 2019 |
October 2019 |
|
Industrial Production Index (excluding mining and quarrying) |
|
0.1 |
-1.7 |
2.4 |
|
Services Revenue Index (excluding education and public administration) |
|
2.7 |
-1.2 |
1.3 |
|
Retail Trade Revenue Index |
|
0.3 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
|
Imports of consumer goods1 |
-14.2 |
15.9 |
-7.0 |
10.7 |
|
Imports of manufacturing inputs (excluding fuels) |
7.0 |
-6.7 |
-0.4 |
3.5 |
|
Goods exports (excluding agriculture) 1 |
1.6 |
-4.5 |
-0.6 |
4.2 |
|
Services exports (excluding transportation) 2 |
|
|
-2.8 |
4.4 |
|
Number of employee posts in the private sector |
|
|
-0.1 |
-0.3 |
|
Job vacancy rate in the business sector3 |
3.5 |
3.5 |
3.4 |
3.5 |
|
Building starts4 |
|
|
|
|
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).
3 The job vacancy rate is calculated out of the total number of employed people and vacancies and is included in the index at its seasonally adjusted level.
4 Since the Central Bureau of Statistics publishes data on building starts once per quarter, the data integrated into the model are at a monthly frequency based on additional sources, such that the distribution is consistent with the quarterly data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (in percent, seasonally adjusted). The most recent figure, published for September, is -1.8%
For additional data and explanations, please click here.
http://www.boi.org.il/en/Research/Pages/ind.aspx