Preliminary figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) show that Israel's economy accelerated sharply in the third quarter of 2015.
GDP grew by an annualized 2.5% in the third quarter of this year. According to the CBS, the annual growth rate was 0.2% in the second quarter and 2.5% in the first. The CBS also noted that the third quarter growth rate reflects rises in private consumption, in public spending, in investment in fixed assets, and in exports of goods and services, excluding diamonds and start-up companies.
According to the CBS, imports of goods and services fell by 0.2% in the third quarter, following a 7% drop in the previous quarter. Spending on private consumption rose 2.4% (on an annual basis) in the third quarter, which translates into a 0.3% rise in spending per capita.
The rise in private consumption follows an annualized fall of 0.32% in the second quarter and an annualized rise of 3.7% in the first quarter. Investment in fixed assets rose by an annualized 0.7% in the third quarter, after a 3.1% drop in the second quarter.
Investment in residential construction rose by an annualized 1.7% in the third quarter, following on from a 3.4% rise in the second quarter and a 5.3% rise in the first. Exports of goods and services, excluding diamonds and start-up companies, rose by an annualized 9.7% in the quarter.
This breaks down into a 7.7% annualized rise in industrial exports excluding diamonds, a 45.9% annualized rise in tourism (9.9% on a quarterly basis), and a 10.2% annualized rise in exports of other services excluding start-up companies. Total exports of goods and services rose by an annualized 4.4% in the third quarter, after a fall of 9.6% in the previous quarter, with exports of diamonds down 42.4% on an annualized basis (12.9% on a quarterly basis), and a decline in the export of start-up companies.
