“The Economist” has ranked Israel as the fourth best performing economy in 2022. “In the Middle East, Israel enjoyed success over the past year, despite the political chaos,” the UK weekly wrote.
The ranking of the 34 OECD countries was based on five macroeconomic indicators: GDP growth, annual inflation, inflation breadth, share prices, and government debt. As “Globes” reported last week Israel’s debt: GDP ratio has fallen from 68% to 60% this year. Although inflation over the past 12 months has risen to 5.3%, this is about half the level of inflation in much of the Western economies, as “The Economist” points out.
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“The Economist” ranked Greece in first place as the best performing economy in 2022, after the shock waves that were sent through the economy in the years before the Covid pandemic. Among other things, Greece managed to shrink its debt: GDP ratio by 16% over the past year. In second and third places in the ranking, ahead of Israel in fourth place, were Portugal and Ireland. Israel shared fourth place with Spain.
The world’s biggest economies did not fare so well. The US was ranked 20th with negligible GDP growth of 0.2%, while Germany was ranked 30th with high inflation of 10%. In last place among the 34 OECD countries was Estonia.
The international comparison by “The Economist” shows an advantage in inflation in countries whose energy is not based on Russian gas and oil, such as Israel. Spain, for example, which purchases natural gas from Algeria and uses solar energy, recorded relatively moderate increase of 5.7% in its consumer price index, in the 12 months from October 2021 to September 2022. Latvia, on the other hand, was hit by inflation of 20% over that period due to its reliance on Russian energy.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on December 25, 2022.
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