A new indicator about the worsening of Israel’s economy… Details
Under the burden of the ongoing war in Gaza, considered one of the longest wars between Tel Aviv and the Hamas movement, the announcement by the Israeli Central Bank to defer the repayment of installments for 117,000 loans came as the latest indicators of the cracks in the Israeli economy.
The Banking Supervision Authority stated that Israelis postponed the repayment of dues for nearly 3 billion shekels (about 800 million dollars) of loans in October, as a result of the war in Gaza.
On Wednesday, the Central Bank of Israel announced that the repayment of installments for about 117,000 loans, mostly mortgages and other consumer loans, totaling 2.7 billion shekels (727 million dollars), had been postponed in October.
The Central Bank added that the data collected in November showed that a third of those who postponed the repayment of loan installments from clients are those who were directly affected by the damage caused by the war, living near the Gaza borders, or were called up as reserve soldiers, or are relatives of those kidnapped in Gaza.
The researcher in economic affairs and consultant to the Arab Center for Studies, Abu Bakr al-Deeb, estimates that Israel’s economy is going through a “serious and crushing crisis,” and that the more intense the war becomes, the greater its losses will be.
Commenting on the deferment of repayment of borrowers’ installments, al-Deeb explains in a statement to Sky News that this is “normal and a natural outcome of the successive losses of the Israeli economy in the second month of the war.”
A news report revealed the challenges facing Israel as the war against Hamas continues, with the losses of the Israeli army continuing to rise.
According to the Jerusalem Post, among the (5) main challenges, there is the economic aspect, which lies in the possibility of the Israeli economy sliding into a recession, according to experts’ expectations, as the conflict continues and more than (360,000) reserve soldiers are called up, forcing them to abandon their regular jobs.
The Israeli economic newspaper, Calcalist, also mentioned, citing preliminary figures from the Ministry of Finance, that the cost of the war waged by Israel against the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip will reach up to 200 billion shekels (51 billion dollars).
Likewise, a financial consulting company in Israel predicted last week that the war could cost the Israeli economy 48 billion dollars over the current and next years.
Leader Capital Markets said in a report that it is likely that Israel will bear two-thirds of the total cost of the war, while the remaining amount will be covered by the United States in the form of military aid.
