The Treasury’s Economic Development Authority submitted today a four-year plan for economic development which envisages a 20 percent annual increase in exports to raise export earnings from $441, 000, 000 last year to $1, 020, 000, 000 in 1966 and to cut the foreign trade deficit from $400,000, 000 to $250,000,000.
The report was submitted to the Cabinet’s Ministerial economic committee. The next stage will be preparation of a derailed program for each of the four years and for each branch of the economy. The plan projects a population increase of 110,000 annually, including 72, 000 immigrants, to reach a total of 2, 500,000 in 1966.
The plan projects an increase in national output of nine to ten percent annually and a limitation of the increase in annual per capita consumption to 2. 5 percent as compared with an average annual increase of five percent during the 1951-59 period.
The plan also calls for a drastic increase in the rate of personal savings to reach 10 percent of the national income or 776, 000, 000 pounds ($288, 000, 000) by 1966. That would cover half of Israel’s investment needs with the other half coming from the capital investments. Investments in Israel presently are being financed entirely by the import of capital. The four-year plan assumes the continuation of full employment.
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