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BOI revises 2012 growth forecast to 3.1%
Bank of Israel says market indicators favorable, support updating growth forecast from initial 2.8%
Three months after downgrading Israel's 2012 growth forecast to 2.8% the Bank of Israel announced Monday that it was revising it yet again, this time to 3.1%.
The Bank also published its first growth forecast for 2013, saying the Israeli market is likely to add 3.5%.
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The Bank's forecast now parallels that of the Treasury, which predicted 3.2% growth in 2012. Still, both projections are slightly higher than those put forward by the OECD, which stands at 2.9%.
According to the abstract, presented by the Bank's Research Department, macroeconomic developments will see the inflation rate over the next four quarters arrive at 2.6%.
The Bank of Israel further predicted that interest rate in Q1-2013 is expected to be 2.5%, and that Israel's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to grow by 3.1% in 2012 and by 3.5% in 2013.
However, the Bank further predicts that unemployment in 2012 will reach 5.8%, and that it will note a slight decrease to 5.7% in 2013.
