Israel's
economy grew at an annualized 4.4% in the fourth quarter of 2009, its strongest spurt in nearly two years as the country continues to recover quickly from a brief downturn.
The Central Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday also left unchanged its third-quarter growth figure of 3.0% and full year 2009 estimate that the economy grew 0.5% to NIS 763 billion ($203 billion).
In 2010, the economy is forecast to grow about 3.5%.
Growth in the fourth quarter was the highest since the first quarter of 2008, when the economy grew 5.5%, and was the culmination of a year when the economy grew stronger each quarter.
After contracting an annualized 3.1% in the first quarter on the heels of the global crisis, Israel's economy grew 1.2% in the second quarter and 3% in the third.
Per-capita gross domestic product grew 2.4% in the fourth quarter.
Growth in the final three months of last year was fuelled by a 33% surge in exports and a 4.4% rise in consumer spending, the bureau said in its first estimate of fourth-quarter GDP growth.
Imports rose 13.8% but investment in fixed assets fell 9.4%.
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