Trade and other business activity between the United States and Israel totalled $167,200,000 in 1955 it was announced today by the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This is an increase of $26,700,000 over 1954.
The main advance was in export-import trade between the countries, total trade turnover reaching $107,350,000 as compared with $87,740,000 in 1954. U. S. exports to Israel reached a new peak of $90,200,000 and U. S. imports from Israel registered an all-time high of $17,200,000 in 1955.
Shipping and insurance payments between the countries accounted for $15,900,000 in 1955 ($15,200,000 in 1954), with Israel receiving $11,500,000 and paying out $4,400,000. The balance was also in favor of Israel in travel and tourism payments. Americans spent in 1955 $5.800,000 for travel and tourism in Israel, against which Israelis spent here $2,200,000.
American investments in and loans to Israel bore fruit in 1955 in the form of total receipts from Israel of $16,800,000 in profits, dividends and interest. Israel’s income from the U. S. from such sources was only $700,000. Expenditures by Israeli offices in the U. S. and other miscellaneous Israeli expenditures here totalled $16,500,000; miscellaneous current payments to Israel amounted to $1,900,000.
While U. S. receipts from Israel on “current account,” for goods and services, surpassed payments to Israel by $93 million, Israel more than covered this deficit by receipts from the U. S. under the “capital account.” Such receipts, totalling $152,300,000, were made up of receipts from National Funds and organizations ($36,100,000), transfers in kind by organizations and individuals ($9,500,000), cash transfers and remittances ($9,000,000), sale of Independence and Development Bonds ($36,700,000), U. S. grant-in-aid and agricultural surpluses ($53,600,000), and other capital transactions ($7,400,000).
Israel’s strong economic ties with the U. S. accounted for the fact that in 1955 Israel spent here over 30 percent of all its worldwide foreign expenditure, and obtained from the U. S. about 45 percent of its total foreign income, the report emphasized.
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