JERUSALEM, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Israel's annual budget deficit dropped to 70.3 billion new shekels, or 22.6 billion U.S. dollars, according to a report issued by the country's Ministry of Finance on Wednesday.
The annual deficit gradually rose from March 2020, reaching a peak of 173.9 billion new shekels in February 2021, and has since decreased to the current figure.
The annual budget deficit between December 2020 and November 2021 accounts for 4.6 percent of Israel's GDP, compared to 5.5 percent reported in October and lower than the government's annual target of 6.8 percent.
For the first 11 months of 2021, the Israeli budget deficit reached 47.7 billion shekels, compared with a deficit of 137.5 billion shekels in January-November last year.
In November alone, a deficit of 600 million shekels was recorded, compared with a deficit of 13.6 billion shekels in November 2020.
Since the beginning of 2021, the Israeli government revenues hit 373.6 billion shekels, a sharp increase of 30.7 percent year on year, while the expenditures totalled 421.3 billion shekels, down 0.5 percent. Enditem
