JERUSALEM: Israel's GDP shrunk by almost one-fifth in the final quarter of 2023, compared to the three months prior, according to official figures published on Monday.
The 19.4-per cent fall in the final quarter was attributed to the scale of the ongoing Gaza war's effect on the high-tech nation's economy.
Overall, Israel's GDP grew by 2.0 per cent in 2023, short of the 2.3 per cent projection made by the Bank of Israel after the war's outbreak in October, the Central Bureau of Statistics figures showed.
It was the single worst quarter for the Israeli economy in terms of GDP per capita since the opening quarter of the Covid pandemic in early 2020.
Exports fell by 18.3 per cent and imports by 42.4 per cent, fueled in part by airlines terminating flights and international shipping avoiding the Red Sea after Houthis began blocking ships over Israel's war against Hamas.
According to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures, the Oct 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people.
In response, Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed over 29,000 people, the majority of whom are women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The country has seen massive labour shortages and the collapse of the tourism industry since the outbreak of war.
In the days following Oct 7, the Israeli military mobilised over 300,000 reservists, and the government immediately barred entry for at least 160,000 Palestinian labourers, who made up a sizable portion of the country's construction and agriculture workforce. --AFP