The Bank of Israel's Composite State of the Economy Index for November 2017 increased by 0.25 percent, similar to its rate of increase in the past two months. The Index indicates continued expansion in activity at the economy’s potential growth rate. The Index was positively impacted this month by an increase in imports of consumer goods and of manufacturing inputs in November and by the increase in retail trade and services revenue in October. The Index’s growth rate was moderated by the decline in the Industrial Production index in October, the decline in services exports in September, and the new quarterly figure on building starts, which declined in the third quarter (Table 2). 

 

There was a slight downward revision of Composite Index figures for the past two 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

November

 

0.25

October

0.32

0.23

September

0.28

0.22

August

0.29

0.28

 

 

 

Table 2: Changes in the Index components in recent months

(monthly percent change, unless otherwise noted)

 

November 2017

October

2017

September 2017

August 2017

Industrial Production Index (excluding mining and quarrying)

 

-1.4

1.1

-0.1

Services Revenue Index (excluding education and public administration)

 

1.2

-2.4

0.9

Retail Trade Revenue Index

 

2.5

-1.4

1.1

Imports of consumer goods1

6.5

-2.6

0.3

-0.2

Imports of manufacturing inputs (excluding fuels)1

2.7

2.7

1.3

1.2

Goods exports (excluding agriculture) 1

-1.6

2.5

-7.1

8.7

Services exports (excluding transportation) 1

 

 

-1.0

-0.9

Number of employee posts in the private sector

 

 

0.1

0.0

Rate of vacant employee posts out of total number of employed people in the business sector2

3.9

3.8

3.8

3.8

Building starts3

 

 

-10.6

 

1 Foreign trade indices are quantitative (in contrast to CBS monthly foreign trade indices).

2 The job vacancy rate is included in the Index at its level, seasonally adjusted and smoothed.

3 As the Central Bureau of Statistics ceased publishing monthly data on building starts, since July 2016 the calculation of the building starts component in the Composite Index has changed. The Component is calculated at a quarterly frequency and the change (in percent, seasonally adjusted) is attributed to the last month of the quarter for which it is published.

For additional data and explanations please click here.

http://www.boi.org.il/en/Research/Pages/ind.aspx​