Consumer Price Index Fails to Infect Bank of Israel Target Lower Limit - 1% • Housing Prices Rise • Only State Subsidization under "Price to Consumer" Manages to "Lower" Prices

• Photo Archive: Yehuda Peretz

Inflation in Israel is disappearing, but house prices, which are not included in the general index, continue to rise, in complete contradiction, according to Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who said that "house prices have stabilized."

The Central Bureau of Statistics published last night that in November the CPI fell 0.4% - double the forecasters' talk of a negative 0.2% index; Inflation since the beginning of 2019 has risen by 0.6%, and by 0.3% over the past 12 months. It is now estimated that the Bank of Israel will have to reduce the interest rate to 0.1% - compared with 0.25% today.

According to CBS data, house prices have continued to rise by 0.6% in the past two months, and within a year they have increased by 2.6% in aggregate. The additional negative index in November led to a particularly sharp fall in prices of vegetables and fruits by 4.2%. 2.1%, in transport decreased by 1.1% and furniture and household equipment decreased by 0.9%.

Kahlon announced another lottery of about 12,000 apartments at a cost to the buyer / archive

Comparing transaction prices in September 2019 to October 2019 compared to transaction prices in August 2019 to September 2019, it was found that house prices rose by 0.6% and thus over the last 12 months, housing prices have increased by 2.6% compared to the same period last year (September 2018 to October 2018).

In the segmentation of housing price changes by districts in September 2019 to October 2019 compared to August 2019 to September 2019, price increases were found in the districts: Tel Aviv 1.2%, North 0.7%, Center 0.5%, South 0.3% and Jerusalem 0.1%. In contrast, a 0.4% price drop was recorded in Haifa.

In the breakdown by districts compared to the corresponding period last year, price increases were found in all districts, with the most prominent ones recorded in the districts: Tel Aviv 3.4%, Northern 2.8%, Jerusalem 2.1% and South 2.0%.

The price of new dwellings was found to be 0.6% lower than in the previous period. The proportion of government support transactions that participated in the calculation was 52.5% compared to 50.2% in the previous period. But after eliminating "price per dwelling" housing prices, new apartment prices did not really fall.