Israel’s Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich told the Knesset’s Finance Committee on Monday that the cost of the Iron Swords War in Gaza against the terrorist organization Hamas will be as much as NIS 191 billion ($52 billion).
Finance Minister Smotrich told the finance committee, “The responsibility of all of us in this house is to pass the budget as quickly as possible”
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“It cannot be denied that the war is an economic event and it will have effects,” he added. “The Israeli economy and economy entered as a strong economy and economy and will overcome the situation.”
Bezalel Smotrich was quick to run out of the committee meeting after his comments as opposition members of the Knesset shouted questions at him. They were clearly annoyed by this.
The Ministry of Finance Budgets Division said that the current budget would need an additional NIS 26 billion ($7 billion). It also predicted that Israel’s fiscal deficit for 2023, as a proportion of GDP, would be 3.7%, up from the pre-war estimate in the 2023 budget of just 1.1%.
Last week the OECD released a report predicting that at the end of 2023, Israel will have a fiscal deficit of 3.1% of GDP, and of as much as 5.2% of GDP in 2024.
In November, J.P. Morgan, the world’s largest investment bank, released an even darker forecast saying that it expects Israel will see a budget deficit of about 4.5% of GDP in both 2023 and 2024.
Also in November, the credit rating agency S&P predicted that the country will have an average deficit of 5.3% of GDP in 2023 and 2024.
Earlier on Monday, Bezalel Smotrich also met with the Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Mr. Mathias Korman, as part of what he described as the Secretary-General’s working and identification visit to Israel.
The Minister thanked the Secretary-General for his “unreserved” support for Israel and his “clear condemnation of the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7.”
Bezalel Smotrich said that it is important that the OECD adopt Korman’s condemnations of Hamas as its official position.
“The war on terrorism is the task shared by the entire western world and the economies of the developed countries,” added Smotrich. “We all have the duty to burn evil and fight terrorism for a safe and prosperous world.”
