"The risk is greater than it appears."
Midroog Ltd. CEO Gil Gazit is unperturbed by the repercussions of the Gaza flotilla on the Israeli economy. "Few companies are exposed to the Turkish economy and it is not certain that there will be any great damage here. Although we're beginning to see the closing of all kinds of ports, as a rating company, the harm to companies is immaterial," he said at the "Globes"-Midroog Ltd. debt market forum yesterday.
"The risk is greater than it appears," responded Clal Finance research director Yuval Ben-Zeev. "The direct damage is not in fact great, since there is almost no joint activity. But the problems are coming from two directions. One is the plunge into Islamic fundamentalism, and it cannot be ruled out that in a few years Turkey will do something like Iran. The second, and greater, risk is global public opinion. This is the danger to both the Israeli economy and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). We're seeing more and more international investors boycotting Israeli stocks."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 9, 2010
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