Israel's fiscal surplus in February 2023 amounted to NIS 2.7 billion, the Ministry of Finance reported today. The fiscal surplus for the 12 months ending in February 2023 amounted to NIS 3.4 billion, or 2.7% of GDP. Israel's fiscal surplus for the 12 months ending January 2023 was 0.3% of GDP, shrinking from 0.6% at the end of December 2022.
The government has set itself a target of a low fiscal deficit of 1% in 2023 and meanwhile 2023 has opened with two consecutive months of surpluses amounting to NIS 16.7 billion. However, alongside these encouraging figures are several disturbing points.
Firstly, state revenues since the beginning of 2023 were slightly less than NIS 80 billion, down 4.2% compared with the corresponding period of 2022. Alongside the reduction in revenues, there has been a 4.8% increase in government expenditure since the start of the year to NIS 63.2 billion.
The fiscal surplus was NIS 23.1 billion in January-February, which is small in comparison with the corresponding period of last year. The Ministry of Finance explains, "The high revenue is in line with the long-term trend, but it is lower than last year, which was an unusually high year."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 9, 2023.
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