​The Bank of Israel's Composite State of the Economy Index for September 2018 increased by 0.3 percent. The growth rate of the Index is similar to the pace that has characterized it in recent years. The Index was positively impacted by the increase in imports of manufacturing inputs and in the job vacancy rate for September, and by the sharp rise in industrial production and the rise in services revenue in August. In contrast, the declines in goods exports and consumer goods imports moderated the Index’s rate of growth this month. 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

September 2018

 

0.26

August 2018

0.36

0.33

July 2018

0.36

0.33

June 2018

0.31

0.30

 

 

 

 

 

Table 2: Changes in the Index components in recent months

(monthly percent change, unless otherwise noted)

 

September

2018

August

2018

July

2018

June

2018

Industrial Production Index (excluding mining and quarrying)

 

7.3

2.8

0.6

Services Revenue Index (excluding education and public administration)

 

1.5

1.1

-2.6

Retail Trade Revenue Index

 

-0.1

-0.2

-0.5

Imports of consumer goods1

-4.1

2.3

2.0

-0.1

Imports of manufacturing inputs (excluding fuels)1

1.8

0.5

2.5

-2.9

Goods exports (excluding agriculture) 1

-8.8

2.1

-4.1

12.9

Services exports (excluding transportation) 1

 

 

3.6

-2.7

Number of employee posts in the private sector

 

 

-0.1

-0.1

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

3.9

3.7

3.8

3.8

Building starts3

 

 

 

4.2

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

 

 

 

 

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