Israel’s fiscal deficit narrowed in the twelve months to the end of April 2025, for the seventh consecutive month, to 5.1% of GDP, or NIS 104.7 billion, Ministry of Finance accountant general Yali Rothenberg reported today. In the twelve months to the end of March 2025, the fiscal deficit was 5.2%.
April was the first month in which the new 2025 budget was approved, after in the first three months government ministries were forced to adapt spending to the constraints of the 2024 budget. The enactment of the budget allowed ministries to implemented expenditures that had been postponed, thus weighing on the spending side of the fiscal deficit equation.
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The Ministry of Finance estimates that the deficit will continue to narrow until the last quarter of 2024, during which it will climb again and stabilize around the planned deficit of 4.9% set in the state budget for 2025. However, a scenario of a return to intense and prolonged fighting in Gaza would change the forecasts. In such a case, defense spending will soar far above what was planned in the budget, and the flow of state tax revenue could also slow down as a result of the economic consequences of the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists.
The strongest flow of revenue to the state coffers was recorded in the first two months of 2025. January broke the all-time record with NIS 63 billion paid to the Ministry of Finance. This is attributed to the public bringing forward financial transactions and operations to the end of 2024, in order to avoid the tax hikes of the 2025 budget.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on May 12, 2025.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.
