Israel faces looming 'economic crisis', warn 300 economists

Some of Israel’s most senior economists have warned that the country faces an impending economic crisis following the country’s war on Gaza.

“You do not understand the magnitude of the economic crisis that Israel’s economy is facing,” said the signatories in an open letter to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The country’s current economic plans were no longer viable, the group of 300 economists warned.

“Continuation of the current conduct harms Israel’s economy, undermines citizens’ trust in the public system, and undermines the State of Israel’s ability to recover from the situation it has found itself in,” the economists said.

They recommended non-essential expenditures in the budget to be immediately cut, and for funds to be diverted to deal with damages related to the war, aid to victims and internally displaced Israelis. 

The International Monetary Fund earlier this year had already downgraded the country’s economic outlook because of deep political polarisation in the country.