Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer's unusually sharp attack on the low participation in the workforce by haredim (ultra-orthodox) at the Herzliya Conference yesterday may have been prompted by hard questions asked by the head of the IMF Mission to Israel, Peter Doyle, senior government officials told "Globes" today.
The sources said that Doyle, during his numerous meetings with Bank of Israel, Ministry of Finance, and other government officials, expressed his concerns over the low participation in Israel's workforce, and the extraordinarily low participation by haredi men was . Doyle apparently did not get the answers he expected, and hinted that the IMF would devote special attention to the issue in its upcoming report on Israel, due on February 13.
IMF Deputy Managing Director Min Zhu is participating in the Herzliya Conference.
Doyle also expressed concern over the rejection of a bill to raise the retirement age of women, and about what he called the over-concentration in the Israeli economy. The Israeli officials told him that the Committee on Over Concentration in the Economy is due to submit its recommendations within a few weeks.
In yesterday's remarks, Fischer reiterated seven times that the "situation is not sustainable", referring to the low participation in the workforce by the haredim and Arabs and the consequent high poverty levels in these communities. "The situation is especially worrying when looking at demographic trends: the rate of increase of the Arab and ultra-Orthodox populations is much higher than the Jewish, non-ultra-Orthodox, population, and the share of these populations in the general population is increasing. Among Arabs, we see some decline in the rate of growth of the population, but among ultra-Orthodox it is actually the opposite. I would like to point out that I very much respect the ultra-Orthodox population, but I must say that a continued increase in the share of the population which does not participate in the workforce cannot continue forever, and so will have to stop."
Fischer added, "We see positive trends: we see, for example, a change among the ultra-Orthodox, which can be seen in the fact that today there already are 6,000 ultra-Orthodox students in colleges. In the Arab sector, there is a trend of establishing independent businesses, even without government aid."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 2, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012