The Melnick State of the Economy Index Rose by 0.6 Percent in August

                        The rise in the Index reflects a slight recovery in the business sector activity.

The recovery will be abruptly stopped due to the lockdown announced.

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The Melnick State of the Israeli Economy Index rose by 0.6 percent in August 2020. The rise in the Index reflects the slight recovery that occurred in the business sector activity with the release of the closure and the partial return of workers to their jobs. Despite the recovery, the level of activity remains at a very low level. It turns out that as long as there is no solution to the pandemic, the release of the closure alone is not enough to rehabilitate the economic activity. There is no doubt that the closure announced in the second half of September will sharply interrupt the recovery, and economic activity can be expected to slow down even beyond the decline of the first closure.

Important statistical note: Due to measurement difficulties, the CBS did not publish seasonally adjusted data (for March to July) for some of the revenue in the commerce and services sectors. The data we use for the above indicators are calculated on the basis of the original data, without seasonal adjustment, and on seasonal coefficients of the last three years; hence, they may change when the CBS publishes official data.

 The components of the August index include: a decrease of 3.2% in the industrial production index in July, after an increase of 2.4% in June; a 1.3% increase in revenue in commerce services in July after a 5.8% increase in June; a decrease of 1.4% in the import index in August, after an increase of 2.8% in July and, an increase of 11.4% in the number of employee posts in the business sector in the month of June, after an increase of 15.1% in May.

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