A full-scale portrait of Israel’s economy, documented with many statistical tables, was provided here today by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. In all instances, the report provided comparisons between Israel and its neighboring states. The 183-page report, entitled “Economic Developments in the Middle East: 1959-1961,” is a supplement to the UN’s World Economic Survey for 1961.
Israel still has a trade deficit, the report showed. “The account on goods and services since 1957,” the report stated, “shows a large but relatively stable deficit, rising from about $332,000,000 in 1957 to $339,000,000 in 1960, with a considerable decline in 1959, when it stood at approximately $321,000,000.” Israel’s total exports in the first half of 1961 amounted to $138,000,000 — while imports during the same period were valued at $285,700,000.
The survey reported that, between 1957 and 1960, Israel received a total of $1,059,300,000 in what are called “official and private donations.” The “official donations,” comprising 33 per cent of the total, were in the form of reparations from West Germany under the Reparations Agreement, contributions from the United States, and United Nations technical and economic assistance. “Private donations” were in the form of personal restitution from Germany to victims of Nazism in Israel, “personal and institutional remittances in cash,” and “transfers in kind.”
FOREIGN LOANS AND DONATIONS EXCEED DEFICIT; INDUSTRY INCREASED
“As the total net receipts from donations and foreign loans,” the survey reported, “exceeded the deficit in goods and services, the gross foreign exchange holdings of the Bank of Israel and the commercial banks increased substantially from about $136,000,000 at the end of 1958, to $273,000,000 at the end of 1960.” In 1960-61, Israel received from the United States surplus grains valued at a total of $101,800,000.
In a section reporting the development plans of all Middle East countries, Israel was shown to have planned developments totaling expenditures of 522,500,000 Israeli pounds (over $130,000,000) for 1962-63.
Israeli industrial production was shown in the report to have registered “substantial” increases. Domestic demands for industrial products had gone up, output and consumption of electricity have risen. Electric consumption in industry went up from 463,000,000 kilowatt-hours in 1957 to 770,000,000 in 1960. The Israeli diamond industry increased its exports from about $35,500,000 in 1957 to $56,400,000 in 1960, representing 27 per cent of Israel’s total value of 1960 exports.
In 1961, Israel had registered 70,300 automobiles, buses and trucks, compared with 43,000 in 1957. Egypt, with almost 13 times Israel’s population, had, in 1961, 93,100 cars, trucks and buses — a decline of some 10,000 from 1957.
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