The Bank of Israel's Composite State of the Economy Index for June 2016 increased by 0.1 percent.  Since the beginning of the year, the rate of growth of the index is stable and slightly lower than its rate of increase in 2015.  The trade and services revenue indices increased in May, contributing to the increase of the overall index. In contrast, the index was negatively impacted by a decline in the industrial production index in May, and by declines in goods imports and exports in June.
 
An upward revision of first quarter GDP data led to a slight upward revision in the Composite Index data retroactive to the beginning of the year, though there was no revision to the index readings of the past few 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
June
 
0.10
May
0.13
0.10
April
0.05
0.06
March
0.10
0.10
 
 
 
Table 2: Changes in the Index components in recent months
(monthly percent change, unless otherwise noted)
 
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
Industrial Production Index (excluding mining and quarrying)
 
-0.7
-1.7
3.3
Services Revenue Index (excluding education, and public administration)
 
0.3
-2.9
2.7
Retail Trade Revenue Index
 
1.0
-3.4
5.7
Imports of consumer goods1
-3.3
4.4
0.8
1.0
Imports of manufacturing inputs (excluding fuels)1
-1.5
4.9
-1.3
-5.9
Goods exports (excluding agriculture) 1
-1.3
-3.5
1.2
-2.6
Services exports (excluding transportation) 1
 
 
1.2
0.2
Number of employee posts in the private sector
 
 
0.2
-0.1
Rate of vacant employee posts out of total number of employed people in the business sector2
3.5
3.8
3.7
3.6
Building starts3
 
 
 
-0.1
1 Foreign trade indices are quantitative (in contrast to CBS monthly foreign trade indices).
2 The rate of job vacancies at its actual level, seasonally adjusted and smoothed.
3 Six-month moving average.
 
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