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Economy overview
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Israel has a technologically advanced market economy with substantial government participation. It depends on imports of crude oil, grains, raw materials, and military equipment. Despite limited natural resources, Israel has intensively developed its agricultural and industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Israel imports substantial quantities of grain but is largely self-sufficient in other agricultural products. Cut diamonds, high-technology equipment, and agricultural products (fruits and vegetables) are the leading exports. Israel usually posts sizable current account deficits, which are covered by large transfer payments from abroad and by foreign loans. Roughly half of the government's external debt is owed to the US, which is its major source of economic and military aid. The bitter Israeli-Palestinian conflict; difficulties in the high-technology, construction, and tourist sectors; and fiscal austerity in the face of growing inflation led to small declines in GDP in 2001 and 2002. The economy grew at 1% in 2003, with improvements in tourism and foreign direct investment. In 2004, rising business and consumer confidence - as well as higher demand for Israeli exports boosted GDP by 2.7%.
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GDP
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purchasing power parity - $120.9 billion (2004 est.)
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GDP - real growth rate
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1.3% (2004 est.)
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GDP - per capita
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purchasing power parity - $19,800 (2004 est.)
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GDP - composition by sector
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agriculture: 2.8%
industry: 37.7%
services: 59.5% (2003 est.)
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Investment gross fixed
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17.2% of GDP (2004 est.)
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Population below poverty line
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18% (2001 est.)
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Household income or consumption by percentage share
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lowest 10%: 2.4%
highest 10%: 28.3% (1997)
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Distribution of family income - Gini index
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35.5 (2001)
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Inflation rate consumer prices
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0.7% (2004 est.)
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Labor force
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2.61 million (2004 est.)
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Labor force by occupation
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agriculture, forestry, and fishing 2.6%, manufacturing 20.2%, construction 7.5%, commerce 12.8%, transport, storage, and communications 6.2%, finance and business 13.1%, personal and other services 6.4%, public services 31.2% (1996)
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Unemployment rate
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10.7% (2004 est.)
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Budget
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revenues: $44.98 billion
expenditures: $51.07 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)
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Public debt
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108.6% of GDP (2004 est.)
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Agriculture products
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citrus, vegetables, cotton; beef, poultry, dairy products
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Industries
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high-technology projects (including aviation, communications, computer-aided design and manufactures, medical electronics), wood and paper products, potash and phosphates, food, beverages, and tobacco, caustic soda, cement, diamond cutting
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Industrial production growth rate
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-0.6% (2004 est.)
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Electricity production
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42.24 billion kWh (2001)
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Electricity production by source
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fossil fuel: 99.9%
hydro: 0.1%
other: 0% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
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Electricity consumption
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37.82 billion kWh (2001)
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Electricity exports
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1.457 billion kWh (2001)
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Electricity imports
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0 kWh (2001)
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Oil production
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80 bbl/day (2001 est.)
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Oil consumption
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260,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
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Oil exports
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NA (2001)
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Oil imports
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NA (2001)
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Oil proved reserves
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1.92 million bbl (1 January 2002)
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Natural gas production
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10 million cu m (2001 est.)
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Natural gas consumption
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10 million cu m (2001 est.)
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Natural gas exports
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0 cu m (2001 est.)
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Natural gas imports
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0 cu m (2001 est.)
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Natural gas proved reserves
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20.81 billion cu m (1 January 2002)
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Current account balance
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$-174 million (2004 est.)
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Exports
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$29.32 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)
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Exports commodities
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machinery and equipment, software, cut diamonds, agricultural products, chemicals, textiles and apparel
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Exports partners
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US 38.4%, Belgium 7.4%, Hong Kong 4.8% (2003)
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Imports
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$32.27 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
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Imports commodities
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raw materials, military equipment, investment goods, rough diamonds, fuels, grain, consumer goods
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Imports partners
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US 15.6%, Belgium 9.3%, Germany 8%, UK 6.7%, Switzerland 6.1%, Italy 4.1% (2003)
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Reserves of foreign exchange gold
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$26.32 billion (2004 est.)
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Debt external
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$70.97 billion (2004 est.)
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Economic aid recipient
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$662 million from US (2003 est.)
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Currency
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new Israeli shekel (ILS); note - NIS is the currency abbreviation; ILS is the International Organization for Standarization (ISO) code for the NIS
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Currency code
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ILS
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Exchange rates
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new Israeli shekels per US dollar - 4.5541 (2003), 4.7378 (2002), 4.2057 (2001), 4.0773 (2000), 4.1397 (1999)
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Fiscal year
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calendar year
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This information was reproduced in part from the CIA World Fact book.
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