Feb. budget deficit totals NIS 4.3B

Finance Ministry says deficit so far in 2013 brought to NIS 1.7 billion. Income from tax alone totals NIS 17 billion in February

Reuters |Published: 03.08.13 , 07:40

Israel posted a budget deficit of NIS 4.3 billion ($1.15 billion) in February to bring the deficit so far in 2013 to NIS 1.7 billion ($460 million), the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.

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Israel only country in West to reduce debt

Spending has been restrained by the lack of a 2013 state budget due to the Knesset elections on January 22. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the process of trying to cobble a governing coalition, whose top priority is to approve a budget.

Income from taxes alone totaled NIS 17 billion ($4.6 billion) in February, flat versus February 2012. For the first two months of 2013, tax revenue was down 5.2%.

Israel is targeting a deficit of 3% of GDP in 2013. To meet that aim, the government will need to implement steep spending cuts and possible tax hikes.

In 2012, Israel recorded a budget deficit of NIS 39 billion ($10.5 billion), or 4.2% of gross domestic product. That was above an initial target of 2% and a revised target of about 3.5%.