{"id":297466,"date":"2026-02-18T14:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/297466\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T14:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:22:07","slug":"calcalist-israels-economy-appears-strong-but-hides-a-persistent-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/297466\/","title":{"rendered":"Calcalist: Israels Economy Appears Strong But Hides a Persistent Deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">SadaNews &#8211; The 2025 data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics in &#8220;Israel&#8221; shows a dual picture, where a quarter of a century of remarkable economic boom is met with a clear warning of signs of erosion in financial and demographic foundations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Israeli newspaper &#8220;Calcalist&#8221; focuses in its report on the &#8220;third part of the story&#8221; as the area of danger, indicating that the continued budget deficit above 5% of Gross Domestic Product for the third consecutive year is &#8220;not sustainable.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to the Israeli newspaper, the government budget deficit stood at 5.2% of GDP according to the calculations of the Central Bureau of Statistics, compared to 4.7% according to the data from the general accountant, reflecting a gap of nearly 11 billion shekels (about 3.5 billion dollars).\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The newspaper emphasizes that the Central Bureau of Statistics adopts international standards and is the official entity relied upon by international institutions, including credit rating agencies.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Calcalist&#8221; concludes that the repeated deficit exceeding 5% of GDP for a third year raises questions about the financial path, warning that a government that &#8220;does not correct its financial path or implement deep reforms&#8221; may lose the conditions that previously enabled the economy to achieve growth.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Warnings and Risks<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The newspaper points out that the conclusion of the annual presentation of the Central Bureau of Statistics with deficit data &#8220;did not come without reason,&#8221; but rather in the context of previous warnings from the chief economist of the bureau and the International Monetary Fund regarding &#8220;unsustainability&#8221; and the difficulty of managing an expansive spending policy without controls.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Calcalist&#8221; notes that the danger is not an immediate collapse, but rather a gradual &#8220;erosion&#8221; in growth drivers if the financial path continues without adjustment.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Demographics and Production<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In addition to the budget deficit, the data reflects a rapidly changing demographic situation, with an increase in the weight of older age groups that require a broader workforce base to finance the healthcare and social services they are increasingly demanding.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Conversely, the weight of groups with low participation rates in the labor market is rising, which pressures the taxpayer base and makes it smaller.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Calcalist&#8221; reports that the continued weakness of integration of certain groups into the labor market, a decline in the quality of basic education, and rising crime rates affecting economic potential are all factors that could lead to &#8220;erosion of the base of future growth.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Despite Israel recording economic growth of nearly 3% in 2025, and a recovery in investments and exports after a less intense period of military confrontations, the Israeli newspaper asserts that expectations for growth exceeding 5% in 2026 remain contingent on the government&#8217;s ability to address structural imbalances.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Calcalist&#8221; stresses that the equation is not about reproducing a previous &#8220;miracle,&#8221; but about maintaining what has been achieved, amid a recurring deficit, increasing demographic pressures, and warnings of a financial path that may weaken the Israeli economy&#8217;s ability to continue growing at the rates it has seen over the past quarter-century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SadaNews &#8211; The 2025 data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics in &#8220;Israel&#8221; shows a dual picture,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46,150616,150615,43341,150614,150613],"class_list":["post-297466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-150616","tag-150615","tag-43341","tag-150614","tag-150613"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}