The government is to take steps within the next few days to lower interest rates, Prime Minister Shimon Peres told the Histadrut convention meeting here tonight.
Peres’ address to the 1,501 delegates was devoted to a wide-ranging review of the economic situation, during which he singled out tax reform and the lowering of interest rates as the most important short-range goals facing the government.
He committed the government to drawing up and implementing a growth policy that would provide 150,000 new jobs within the next five years and which would enable the transfer of workers from the service sector to industry.
Before Peres spoke, Histadrut Secretary-General Yisrael Kessar announced that workers committees in factories and institutions accounting for some 350,000 workers had pledged their support for the Histadrut’s new growth fund. The push for growth fund will be financed by workers donating one day’s pay every six months.
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