by Guy Bechor, translated and edited by Hillel Fendel
Israel's economic data for the first half of the current year indicate the country's extraordinary economic showing for this year – and actually for the entire first two decades of the 21st century.
An impressive summary of the stats can be found in the Sept. 2021 update to the excellent book by Dr. Adam Roiter and Nogah Keinan, entitled, "Israel: Success Story."
Our GNP (Gross National Product) stands at $47,000 a year per person according to OECD data – and even more according to the International Monetary Fund – $51,800. In national terms, it is all the way up to $459 billion a year!
Exports have risen to $67.6 billion – a 20% increase from last year. Israeli exports were barely affected by the Corona pandemic!
Going back in time a bit, Israel's economy has grown by 105%, accumulatively since 2000 – compared to an average of only 41% in the other countries of the OECD. Israel is in third place among hi-tech economies in the world, following tech giants United States and Great Britain. Israeli hi-tech is expected to raise $45 billion this year.
The Abraham Accords of 2020 – Israel's normalization agreements with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (Israel's first public normalization of relations with an Arab country since that with Jordan in 1994) – have provided a great push for Israel's economy. Israel's trade with these two countries rose from a few million dollars in 2019 to an expected two billion dollars (!) in 2021.
And for those who are worried about Israeli pensions in the near future, the fact is that there is no need to be concerned. We are in third place internationally in terms of the stability of our pension funds, following Holland and Denmark.
Israel also has a tremendous treasure of dollar reserves, as Dr. Roiter reports: They currently stand at $200 million, compared with only $125 million in 2019 – and $30 million in 2007!
The Israeli economy, notes Dr. Bechor, sorely requires trained working hands – and if the numbers are any indicator, these will be provided in part by the increasing amounts of new immigrants. Following a significant drop in 2020 because of Corona, the number of new olim is once again back up: It was between 31,000 and 34,000 in each of the years 2015 through 2019, then just 22,000 in 2020, and is projected to hit 36,000 for the year of 2021!
This is not to say that Israel does not have economic problems: expensive real estate, insufficient construction, traffic congestion, societal gaps, and bureaucracy. But these are issues that must (and can) be faced – together!