The combined index of the Bank of Israel, which reflects the entirety of economic activity in the economy, increased in December by a rate of 0.05%, and following the data of the previous months, it indicates an expectation of a small increase in economic activity at the end of 2022.
The Bank of Israel explained that the combined index was positively affected by the increase in the industrial production index, the import of production inputs and wage jobs (October). On the other hand, the revenue index in services, the revenue index in retail trade, the import of consumer goods, the export of goods, the export of services, the beginnings of construction, the production of electricity and purchases with credit cards decreased – and had a negative effect on the index.
The index data for the months July-November have been updated upwards, following updates to the index component data in the previous months and in particular an upward update of most of the data for the month of September.