The Central Bureau of Statistics ( CBS ) reported last week that higher imports, mainly of private consumption products, increased Israel’s trade deficit in January-November 2004, by 22% to $6.09 billion.
According to trade data published by the CBS, imports of goods were up 21% to $36.7 billion, while exports grew 21% to $30.6 billion.
Trade deficit in November totaled $524 million, compared with $434 million in November 2003. Total exports in November totaled $2.86 billion, while total imports amounted to $3.4 billion. CBS's trend figures show that the trade deficit in January-November averaged $554 million per month, or $6.6 billion in annualized terms.
Trend data show that High-tech exports, which account for 46% of all industrial exports, fell 1.9% in the past three months, after leaping by 10 percent in the preceding three-month period (All figures are in annualized terms). The drop in export was even more pronounced for the sub-category of electronic components and computers, which saw exports slump 28 percent in the period September-October. Trend data show an annualized 4.3% increase in exports of goods, excluding diamonds, in October-November, and of 3.7% in industrial exports.
