JERUSALEM, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Israel's economy grew at a faster pace in the third quarter of 2024, with its gross domestic product (GDP) rising by an annualized 3.8 percent, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Sunday in an initial estimate.
For the second quarter of 2024, the bureau revised the GDP growth to 0.7 percent year-on-year in its second estimate in September, down from an initial 1.2 percent reported a month ago.
The overall growth is mainly driven by a year-on-year 8.6-percent increase in consumer spending and a 21.8-percent surge in investment in fixed assets, it showed.
Meanwhile, total exports of goods and services, excluding diamonds and start-up companies, and total imports of goods and services rose by 5.2 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively, on a yearly basis, whereas government spending dropped by 10.8 percent, according to the estimate.
On Oct. 9, Israel's central bank downgraded its growth forecast for the Israeli economy from 1.5 percent to 0.5 percent in 2024, citing lower-than-expected growth in the first half of this year and the economic fallout from the recent security deterioration. ■
