Israel’s Economic Growth Since 1948 Reported As Highest in the World

Israel’s economic growth over the past quarter-century has been the highest in the world, David Horowitz, former governor of the Bank of Israel, reported here. In an address to the Zionist Organization of America’s Institute of Israel Studies, a series of symposia for English-speaking immigrants conducted at the ZOA House here, Horowitz said that Israel has averaged a 9 percent annual increase in its gross national product since it achieved statehood in 1948.

The impressive rise in Israel’s GNP reflects real value, rather than inflated currency terms, is coupled with the largest proportional balance-of-payments deficit in the world, and represents a dynamic multi-faceted economy in which public, private and labor sectors compete, and in which there is vast development in both agriculture and industry, Horowitz said.

In addition, he cited the following indicators of a thriving economy: a rise in Israel’s export-import ratio from 1-to-7 in 1948 to 2-to-3 in 1973; a jump in Israel’s industrial labor force from 80,000 in 1950 to more than 250,000 in 1973; an increase in agricultural productivity, whereby Israeli farmers are providing 85 percent of the food requirements for a population of three million today – plus exports of $160 million in food products – compared to their providing only enough food to meet the low-level consumption needs of one million persons in 1948.

Horowitz said that this outstanding economic growth has been aided by the influx of $12 billion in foreign funds over the past 25 years and by the immigration of large numbers of highly-skilled professionals trained abroad.

The cost of this development has been high, he noted, Israel currently owes $4 billion in foreign debts, and its balance-of-trade deficit-currently more than $1 billion, proportionately the world’s largest – grows in absolute terms each year.

Horowitz also conceded that Israel is still faced with a disturbing poverty problem, with about 20 percent of the population at or below the poverty line. However, he did not believe that the social gap between sectors of the population is growing. The key to reducing this gap is the elimination of poverty, he said, and this will require considerable restraint on the prosperity of all segments of the population.

NEWS BRIEFS

As Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev arrived in Bonn Friday for talks with Chancellor Willy Brandt the Jewish community in Munich issued a statement reminding the public of the continuing adverse situation of Jews in the Soviet Union. The statement said that although the Soviet Union subscribes to the United Nations Charter on human rights, the Jews in the USSR are still being denied elementary human rights, including the right to emigrate.

The Central Jewish Community of Mexico has sent a telegram to Foreign Minister Emilio Rabasa informing him of the tragic situation of Iraqi Jewry and asking that the Mexican government intervene to save the remnant of Iraq’s Jewish community. The committee also published a statement in all Mexican newspapers protesting against the massacre of the Kashkosh family and urging public moral support. The local Arab-Jewish communities organized mourning meetings and religious services at temples here for Jews murdered in Iraq.

Finance Minister Pinhas Sapin is expected to recommend that the Israel government participate in the establishment of a $100 million foundation to create jobs for new immigrants. The foundation will be concerned particularly with jobs for immigrants who hold university degrees in social studies and the humanities. Finance Ministry sources said the foundation would be set up to assist Israeli firms that employ new immigrants. About $50 million are expected to be raised by selling shares in the United States. Another $25 million would be allocated by the government and $25 million is expected from the Jewish Agency.

Pioneer Women in New York reported the establishment of a new Arab Women’s club in the village of Ein Rafah, near Jerusalem. This new group represents the first organized cultural and training activity undertaken for women of that village and has already attracted a large membership to its thrice-weekly program of handicrafts and vocational training. The club is handed by a trained group worker from East Jerusalem, who is herself an Arab woman. It represents the 33rd such group sponsored by Pioneer Women, through its Israel affiliate organization, Moetzet Hapoalot, and their Arab Women’s department.

Ten persons detained following the explosion Friday of a small bomb at a soldiers’ bus stop in Tel Aviv were released yesterday and today when it was determined they were not involved.