Goods imports for the month of August totaled $4.4 billion, and exports totaled $3.2 billion, placing the trade deficit at $1.2 billion dollars, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported Sunday.
During the months of July and August, exports increased by 25.6% as calculated annually. However, March to May saw a decrease of 0.4%.
Import of goods (except diamonds, air and sea vessels and energy materials) increased between June and August by 10.4%, after a decrease of 24.6% between March and May.
During the first eight months of the year, Israel's trade deficit – a trade balance in which the total volume of imports is larger than the total volume of exports – averaged at $500 million a month and $5.9 billion by annual calculation. By comparison, in 2008 the trade deficit was $13.2 billion.
Of the total goods imported, 37% was raw materials, 16% machinery equipment and land vehicles for investment, 16% goods for consumption and the remaining 31% was import of diamonds, energy materials, airplanes and sea vessels.
Eighty-nine percent of the total goods exported was industrial exports, 10% was diamonds and the remaining 1% was agricultural goods.
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