Jerusalem [Israel], October 14: Israel's 12-month budget surplus rose to 15.7 billion shekels (4.4 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of September, the country's Finance Ministry said Thursday.
This represents an increase of 60.2 percent compared to a surplus of 9.8 billion shekels registered in the 12-month period that ended in August, according to ministry data.
The latest surplus figure is 0.9 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), the highest rate since December 1986, when a 12-month state budget surplus accounted for 2.7 percent of GDP, showed historical data from Israel's central bank.
In the first nine months of 2022, a surplus of 33.3 billion shekels was recorded in the Israeli budget, compared to a deficit of 51.6 billion shekels registered in January-September last year, the ministry noted.
The high budget surplus is due to an increase in tax revenues, alongside a decrease in spending on the national financial support plan for the COVID-19 pandemic, Sonia Gorodeisky, chief financial editor at Israel Hayom daily newspaper, explained to Xinhua.
Since the beginning of 2022, the Israeli government revenues thus hit 355 billion shekels, up by 20.2 percent year on year, while the expenditures totaled 321.7 billion shekels, a decrease of 7.2 percent.
Source: Xinhua
