Israel: Business confidence remains stable in April

The business confidence index elaborated by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) tallied 17.7 in April, thus matching March’s reading and remaining at the highest level on record.

In addition, the consumer confidence index increased from minus 17.3 in February to minus 13.7 in March (the latest month for which data is available), thus marking a multi-year high level. Despite the monthly increase, consumer confidence remains in negative territory.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect fixed investment to contract 4.4% in 2016, which is down 0.7 percentage points from last month’s projection. For 2017, the panel sees fixed investment growing 4.9%. Panelists expect private consumption to grow 3.4% in 2016, which is unchanged from last month’s estimate. The panel expects private consumption to grow 3.6% in 2017.