PR-Composite Index May 2013.docxTo view this press release as Word doc

 

 

The Bank of Israel's Composite State of the Economy Index for May increased by 0.1 percent. The rate of increase in the Index this month indicates continued slowdown in economic activity. The increase in the Index this month reflects increases in indices of trade revenue and services revenue.[1] In contrast, imports of consumer products and raw materials declined, as did goods and services exports and the industrial production index (Table 1). It should be noted that Index data for recent months were revised downward due to updates in foreign trade components of the Index. Table 2 presents the changes in components of the Index in the past few months.

 


Table 1: Revisions in the Composite Index

 

Revision
Previous data
New data
 
 
 
May
 
0.11
April
0.21
0.13
March
0.07
0.01

 


Table 2: Changes in the Index components in recent months
(monthly percent change, unless otherwise noted)

 

 
May
April
March
February
Industrial Production Index (excluding mining and quarrying)
 
-1.3
-1.4
2.6
Services Revenue Index (excluding finance, education, and public administration)
 
2.8
-1.5
2.4
Trade Revenue Index
 
2.6
-4.1
3.3
Imports of consumer products
-2.5
4.1
-2.1
-3.5
Imports of manufacturing inputs (excluding fuels)
-0.9
1.6
-3.1
-4.4
Exports of goods (excluding agriculture)
-8.7
7.6
-12.8
18.5
Exports of services (excluding transportation)
-4.3
5.2
0.0
5.1
Number of employee posts in the private sector
 
-0.5
0.1
0.5
Rate of vacant employee positions out of total number of employed people in the business sector[2]
2.8
2.8
2.9
2.9
Building starts[3]
 
 
2.4
3.0

 

 

 

For additional data and explanations please click here.

[1] The data for the last month for services exports (excluding transportation) is based on Bank of Israel estimates of tourism services exports and other services exports.
[2] The rate of job vacancies at its actual level, and not as a rate of change.
[3] Six-month moving average.