Economy

Bank Leumi CEO Rakefet Russak-Aminoach has announced she will step down from her position, after having served seven years in the post. Russak-Aminoach’s decision follows a recent statements by the CEOs of both Israel Discount Bank and Bank Hapoalim that they too...

The Central Bureau of Statistics announced that prices rose by 0.4% in October vs. September. In addition, they reported that the price of apartments went up 0.2%. The price increase was expected. Over the last year, the cumulative price increase came to...

Everyone talks about the enormous cost of just about everything in Tel Aviv (and in Israel, in general). So, as an experiment, I decided to compare prices in one very specific sector — i.e. American fast food. For many years, economists loved...

According to IVC Research Center, during the second quarter of 2019, 125 Israeli firms raised capital totalling $2.32 billion. This sum is down from the 253 deals, totaling $3.87 billion raised during the first quarter of 2019. Ten very...

The Central Bureau of Statistics reported very mixed results in the housing sector. Builders sold 5,750 new dwellings during the first three months of 2019, which represents a decrease of 11.4% from the last three months of 2018. However, that same number...

Apple Headquarters in Herzilia There are many reasons why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected, despite all of his legal troubles, and notwithstanding a formidable group of former generals running against him. However, the most significant reason why Netanyahu was re-elected for his...

New cars photo by kaysgeog A total of 158,000 cars were imported into Israel during the first half of 2019. This represents a drop of 3% from the first six months of 2019.  This decline continues a slow drop in the sale of...

Icholov Hospital in Tel Aviv Nurses went out on a nationwide strike in Israel this morning. They are not asking for higher wages. Rather, they are asking that more nurses be hired. Israel has one of the lowest nurse-to-population ratios, and as a...

Mega Tel Aviv Last month, I did a price comparison between McDonald's in the United States and McDonald here in Israel. As we saw, Israeli prices are often twice, or more, than comparable items in the US McDonald’s.  This month,...

The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) released initial figures for economic growth during the second quarter of 2019. CBS showed a growth rate of only 1% during Q2, a marked decrease from 4.7% rise seen in Q1. The number is a little misleading. Economic growth reported...