In 66% of the countries in the world, the impact on growth following the corona was more severe than in Israel. • Optimistic national economists: "Recovery recorded in most sectors of the economy"
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange concludes a green month
Photo:
Joshua Joseph
"Israel is in a good place in the middle" - this is how Leumi's senior economists define the state of the Israeli economy relative to OECD countries.
Dr. Gil Michael Befman, Chief Economist of Leumi and Eyal Raz, Head of Economics at Leumi Capital Markets, refer to OECD publications on economic growth in the first half of 2020. "In the Israeli economy, growth rates in the first two quarters amounted to a cumulative decline in GDP of about 9.7%, ie in the top third of the countries "- that is, 66% of the countries experienced more severe damage than Israel. At the same time, national economists note that if they neutralize the rapid population growth rate in Israel relative to most OECD countries and perform analysis in terms of per capita growth," then its location Of Israel was close to the median. "
The volume of credit card purchases decreased in July by about 3.9% compared to June - after increases in May and June.
The annual rate was about 2.5%, compared to 8-7 percent in the last two years, before the corona eruption.
"In recent months, there has been a recovery in the volume of acquisitions, following the reduction in March and April, which reflects a return of most industries to activity," the report said. "However, the current growth rate is still far from the trend of recent years."
Another interesting statistic is that when it comes to the weight of shares in the financial assets portfolio held by the public, the impact of the corona crisis is not unusual compared to previous crises.
According to the analysis, the portfolio of financial assets held by the public at the end of June amounted to NIS 4 billion, a decrease of about 1.7% compared to December 2019 - before the corona era.
The decline was mostly in the first quarter, with an emphasis on March, when a recovery was recorded in the second quarter, which moderated the erosion of the financial assets portfolio.
The component of shares held by the public, which includes the value of the shares held in Israel and abroad, decreased from approximately 24.4% of the portfolio at the end of 2019 to approximately 21.6% at the end of June.
The stock market is recovering
Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange publishes the summary for August: Last month's trading was characterized by price increases in all the leading stock indices, and the Tel Aviv 35 and Tel Aviv 90 indices rose by 1% and 9%, respectively.
Tel Aviv 90 is only about half a percent off the write-off of its losses since the beginning of the year.
The Tel Aviv Growths Index jumped 16% and is now 8% higher than at the beginning of the year. It should be noted that an increase of up to 11% was recorded on US stock exchanges and an average increase of about 3% was recorded. In leading stock exchanges in Europe.
The moderate increase in the Tel Aviv 35 index was caused by the three dual pharma companies included in the index.