The monthly Index of Economic Activity increased by 0.5 percent in July

The monthly Index of Economic Activity increased by 0.5 percent in July. The Index this month reflects the average monthly growth estimate for the three months from May to July

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The monthly Index of Economic Activity[1] increased by 0.5 percent in July. The Index this month reflects the average monthly growth estimate for the three months from May to July. The Index was positively affected by labor market data regarding those actually employed and employee posts in May and June, and job vacancies in May–July, as well as net VAT receipts in June and July and income tax receipts in May and June. Actual GDP figures for the second quarter also contributed positively to the Index. In contrast, credit card purchases in June, the Industrial Production index in May, goods exports and manufacturing export, particularly those of mixed-high technology, and the import of consumption goods and of manufacturing inputs in July moderated the increase in the Index (Tables 1 and 2).

The pace of increase of the index is above the long-term growth trend (about 0.3 percent).

The Index for previous months was revised upward with the completion of data that were previously missing and with the upward revision in growth data for the first quarter of 2026.

Figure 1 presents the Index data over the past two years.  Table 1 presents the contributions of the Index’s components to the overall estimate and the revisions to the Index, and Table 2 presents the monthly rate of change in the Index’s components.

FIGURE 1: The Monthly Index of Economic Activity

 

* The table presents the contribution of each group of components in the monthly index, such that the monthly estimate constitutes the sum of the contributions of each of the components detailed in the table.  Some of the raw data influence the monthly estimate with a lag or influence the estimates of several months.

[1] The monthly Index of Economic Activity reflects the three-month average of the estimated monthly growth of GDP.  The estimate is based on a model developed at the Bank of Israel (Ginker and Suhoy, 2021).