The Bank of Israel's Composite State of the Economy Index for October 2017 increased by 0.3 percent, similar to its rate of increase in the past two months. The increase in the Index in the past three months indicates expansion of economic activity at a more rapid pace than between April and July. The Index was positively impacted this month by the increase in imports of manufacturing inputs in October, by the increase in industrial production in September, and by the increase in tourist entries in October (which is reflected in an increase in services exports). In contrast, the declines in the import of consumer goods in October and in the retail trade and services revenue indices in September moderated the Index’s rate of increase (Table 2).
The Composite Index figures for recent months were not markedly revised (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 |
|
October |
|
0.32 |
|
September |
0.27 |
0.28 |
|
August |
0.30 |
0.29 |
|
July |
0.21 |
0.21 |
Table 2: Changes in the Index components in recent months
(monthly percent change, unless otherwise noted)
|
|
October 2017 |
September 2017 |
August 2017 |
July 2017 |
|
Industrial Production Index (excluding mining and quarrying) |
|
1.0 |
0.0 |
-2.1 |
|
Services Revenue Index (excluding education and public administration) |
|
-3.0 |
0.8 |
1.2 |
|
Retail Trade Revenue Index |
|
-1.3 |
1.0 |
-0.7 |
|
Imports of consumer goods1 |
-2.7 |
0.1 |
-0.5 |
-0.4 |
|
Imports of manufacturing inputs (excluding fuels)1 |
2.2 |
1.1 |
0.9 |
-0.2 |
|
Goods exports (excluding agriculture) 1 |
0.4 |
-7.1 |
8.6 |
-4.6 |
|
Services exports (excluding transportation) 1 |
|
|
-0.8 |
0.8 |
|
Number of employee posts in the private sector |
|
|
0.0 |
0.0 |
|
Rate of vacant employee posts out of total number of employed people in the business sector2 |
3.8 |
3.8 |
3.8 |
3.8 |
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.
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http://www.boi.org.il/en/Research/Pages/ind.aspx