Israel Matzav

Leading economic indicators rise for first time in a year

This was the first piece of news on Monday morning at 5:00 am. The leading economic indicators rose during the month of June for the first time in a year. The current estimate is 0.2%. Sorry, not the American economy. The Israeli economy.

Israel’s index of leading economic indicators rose a preliminary 0.2 percent in June, the first increase since July 2008, led by foreign trade, the Bank of Israel said today.

The increase followed a 0.3 percent decline in May, smaller than the 0.5 percent drop initially reported, the Jerusalem- based bank said in an e-mailed statement today.

“It is still too early to evaluate if the increase shows a turnaround in the business cycle,” the bank said.

Israeli gross domestic product shrank an annualized 3.7 percent in the first quarter, the Central Bureau of Statistics said July 16. The economy has weathered the worst of the economic crisis and growth is expected to resume by the end of 2009 or the beginning of next year, Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer said on July 2.

The central bank has cut interest rates by 3.75 percentage points since October to a record low of 0.5 percent as it sought to revive the economy. Standard & Poor’s on July 16 said that Israel GDP will probably contract by 1.5 percent this year and grow 1 percent in 2010.

And all that without any porkulus. Hmmm.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:11 PM