Israel’s exports have increased by 350 percent during the past eight years, while imports have increased by only 54 percent, it is indicated by Leon H. and Mary Dublin Keyserling, noted economists, in a survey of Israel’s economy published today by the Israel Bond Organization.
Mr. Keyserling served as chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, in the Truman Administration, and Mrs. Keyserling has been associated with him in economic work for many years. They prepared the report after visiting Israel in August to make a detailed study of the country’s economy.
The report discusses Israel’s housing program, its agricultural progress, the exploitation of mineral wealth, the growth of industries, efforts to improve Israel’s foreign trade position, full utilization of resources, control of inflation, and raising the standard of living. It indicates that the gross national product of the State of Israel has increased 11 percent per year between 1950 and 1958. This, it points out, is probably the highest average annual increase achieved by any country in the world during these years.
The Keyserling report emphasizes that Israel bonds, which represent about 35 percent of Israel’s Development Budget, have had a major share in the expansion of the country’s industries, agriculture and the exploitation of its natural resources. Approximately one-third of the investment requirements for the five-year plan which is to be started in 1960 are calculated to come from the Development Budget, to which the proceeds of the sale of Israel bonds are devoted, the report says, adding that the balance would be derived from internal savings and from foreign and local private investment.
The report sums up the aims of Israel’s new five-year industrial plan, which is designed to work in combination with the plans for the further development of agriculture and natural resources. The plan has as its chief frame of reference the reduction of the current deficit on Israel’s trade and service account, while at the same time improving the living standards of a rising population. Emphasis is being placed on the development of those industries whose export potentials are greatest, toward the quadrupling of industrial exports by 1965. If production goals are reached, industrial exports, including both manufactured goods and diamonds, now totaling about $85,000,000, should rise to about $320,000,000 in 1955, according to the Keyserlings.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
