Economy - overview Israel has a market economy with substantial government participation.It depends on imports of crude oil, grains, raw materials, and military equipment.Despite limited natural resources, Israel has intensively developed its agriculturaland industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Manufacturing and constructionemploy about 29% of Israeli workers, agriculture, forestry, and fishing 3.5%,and services the rest. Israel is largely self-sufficient in food productionexcept for grains. Diamonds, high-technology equipment, and agricultural products(fruits and vegetables) are leading exports. Israel usually posts sizablecurrent account deficits, which are covered by large transfer payments fromabroad and by foreign loans. Roughly half of the government's external debtis owed to the US, which is its major source of economic and military aid.To earn needed foreign exchange, Israel has been targeting high-technologyniches in international markets, such as medical scanning equipment. The influxof Jewish immigrants from the former USSR, which topped 750,000 during theperiod 1989-96, initially increased unemployment, intensified housing problems,and strained the government budget. At the same time, the immigrants bringto the economy valuable scientific and professional expertise.

GDP purchasing power parity - $85.7 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 4.6% (1996)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $16,400 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture: 3.5%
industry: 22%
services: 74.5%

Inflation rate - consumer price index 11.3% (1996)

Labor force
total: 2.2 million (1996)
by occupation : public services 29.3%, manufacturing 22.1%, construction 6.5%, commerce13.9%, finance and business 10.4%, personal and other services 7.4%, transport,storage, and communications 6.3%, agriculture, forestry, and fishing 3.5%,other 0.6% (1992)

Unemployment rate 6.5% (1996)

Budget
revenues: $41 billion
expenditures: $53 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1996)

Industries food processing, diamond cutting and polishing, textiles and apparel,chemicals, metal products, military equipment, transport equipment, electricalequipment, potash mining, high-technology electronics, tourism

Industrial production growth rate 8% (1995)

Electricity - capacity 6.92 million kW (1995 est.)

Electricity - production 30.4 billion kWh (1995 est.)

Electricity - consumption per capita 4,738 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture - products citrus and other fruits, vegetables, cotton; beef, poultry, dairy products

Exports
total value: $20.3 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities : machinery and equipment, cut diamonds, chemicals, textiles and apparel,agricultural products, metals
partners: US, EU, Japan

Imports
total value: $28.3 billion (c.i.f., 1996)
commodities : military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, oil, other productiveinputs, consumer goods
partners: EU, US, Japan

Debt - external $25.7 billion (1996)

Economic aid
recipient : total receipts $12.14 billion of which $11.38 billion from the US (1990-93)

Currency 1 new Israeli shekel (NIS) = 100 new agorot

Exchange rates new Israeli shekels (NIS) per US$1 - 3.2761 (January 1997), 3.2882 (1996),3.0113 (1995), 3.0111 (1994), 2.8301 (1993), 2.4591 (1992)

Fiscal year calendar year (since 1 January 1992)

NOTE: The information regarding Israel on this page is re-published from the 1997 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Israel Economy 1997 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Israel Economy 1997 should be addressed to the CIA.