| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| War with Hamas dents Israel economy but strong rebound seen afterwards | |
| 2024-02-15 | |
Israel's $500 billion economy had been humming along and was expected to grow around 3.5% last year, but after gunmen from Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked on October 7, the economy came to a standstill. Israelis stopped spending and travelling, hundreds of thousands were called up into reserve military duty in one of the largest troop mobilizations Israel has ever seen and thousands of Palestinian workers were laid off. ...Consumer confidence stands at levels not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, while the annual inflation rate has eased back down to 3%, prompting a Bank of Israel rate reduction of a quarter-point in January. At the outset of the war, most private spending was just on essential goods like food, while Israelis were not in any mood to travel for leisure, or go to movies or shows. Now, even as fighting continues in Gaza, thousands of reservists have been sent home and crowds have returned to the shopping malls and restaurants that were shut down at the start of the war. "It seems like the economy is coming back," said Bank Leumi chief economist Gil Bufman. He pointed to real-time data such as credit card purchases that indicate "demand is coming back" following a "terrible month" in October, before stabilizing in November and improving in December. | |
| Posted by:Grom the Reflective |