Economy grows annual 2.2% in Q3

Israel's economy grew at an annual rate of 2.2% in the third quarter, the Central Bureau of Statistics said on Monday in the clearest signal yet that Israel has emerged from a recession.

Growth was led by large quarterly gains in consumer spending, exports, imports and investments in fixed assets.

On the heels of the global economic and financial crisis, the economy had entered a recession in the fourth quarter of 2008, contracting by 1.6% in the last three months of 2008 and by 3.2% in the first quarter of 2009.

But fuelled largely by government spending, the economy grew an annual 1% in the April-June period, a revision from a prior estimate of 0.8%.

Exports grew 21.8% while consumer spending rose 8.9% in the July-September period. Imports soared 61.9% while investment in fixed assets grew 23.2%.

The economy is forecast to show zero growth in all of 2009.