According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel’s economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2021 was 16.1% year-on-year, and growth for the whole of 2021 was 8.1%.
This figure, a record for the 21st century, far exceeds the forecasts of both the Bank of Israel (6.5%) and the Ministry of Finance (7.1%). In 2000, Israeli GDP grew by 8.4%.
Economic growth in Israel exceeded the OECD average (5.3%), economic growth in the US (5.7%), UK (7.5%).
At the same time, GDP per capita growth in Israel was less significant (6.3%) due to the high level of population growth. Therefore, in the UK, for example, this figure was higher (6.9%).
As a result of high GDP growth, the state budget deficit in 2021 was 4%, not the forecasted 4.5%, and the ratio of public debt to GDP decreased to 69.4%.
More than half of the economic growth was the result of an 11.7% increase in private consumption in 2021, offsetting a 9.2% decline in private consumption in 2020.
Israeli exports, which even ended the first year of the crisis with a slight but significant increase (1.9%), grew by 13.6% in 2021, with the export of services outstripping the export of goods and raw materials.
GDP growth in the commercial sector amounted to 9.5% in 2021