The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) announced last week that Israel's trade deficit for May 2005 was up 42% to $10.1 billion, compared with trade deficit of $711 million in May 2004. According to the CBS, this was the highest monthly trade deficit in ten months.
The CBS noted that May's trade deficit was up 215% compared with April 2005, a $540 million addition to the trade deficit. Imports were $4.33 billion, while exports were $3.32 million. Exports for the period January-May 2005 totaled $15.33 billion, a 10.8% increase.
Imports of goods for January-May period totaled $18.28 billion, a 13.3% increase. The CBS gave an overall view indicating that the deficit has grown by 27% since the beginning of 2005, to $2.95 billion, compared with $2.32 billion for January-May 2004.
The CBS also noted that Israel's trade deficit for the first five months of 2005 was $589 million on average per month. This is, according to the CBS, a $7.1 billion trade deficit in annual terms, a 9.2% rise compared with THE 2004 trade deficit of $6.5 billion.
