The importation of capital into Israel rose to $778 million in 1967 as against $475 million in 1966, the Treasury reported. It said sale of Israel Government Bonds abroad jumped from $122 million in 1966 to $230 million in 1967. Israel’s obligations abroad in the form of Independence and Development Bonds stood at $718 million at the end of last year, the Treasury said. Foreign currency reserves rose from $731 million to $947 million.
Minister of Labor Yigal Allon announced that unemployment in Israel had dropped by almost two-thirds in the past year. From a high of 42,000 in March, 1967, he said, the figure had fallen to just under 17,000 in March of this year. Included in that figure, he noted, were some 5,000 “hard-core” cases, mainly unskilled workers. There were labor scarcities, he said, in electronics, nursing and clerical jobs.
David Golan, director-general of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, told the press that while there had been no rise in exports during the first four months of this year, a careful study of market conditions supported a 1968 target of $470 million in exports, compared to $430 million in 1967. He said that the Government had scaled down its estimated annual growth of industrial exports but considered a S40 million increase this year to be possible. The forecast of an annual export growth rate of 17 percent, which the Government had submitted to the world economic conference here last month, was too optimistic, he said, and a growth rate of about nine percent for the next five years was more likely.
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.
