ISRAELI ECONOMY CONTINUES TO DECLINE OVER GAZA WAR: DATA

Tel Aviv, 23 Rabi’ul Awwal 1436/14 January 2015 (MINA) – New data released by the Israeli Central Bank shows that the regime’s economy is still suffering from the effects of its recent costly war on the Gaza Strip.

According to official data, the Israeli economy has not yet recovered from the 50-day offensive on Gaza that left more than 2,140 Palestinians, including 577 children, dead last summer, Press Tv quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Israel unleashed aerial attacks on Gaza in early July 2014 and later expanded its military campaign with a ground invasion of the Palestinian coastal enclave. The war ended in late August 2014 with an Egyptian-brokered truce.

The Israeli bank said the regime’s economic growth in 2014 reached its lowest level in five years. The data showed that the Israeli gross domestic product (GDP) fell at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in the third quarter of 2014.

On Sunday, Tel Aviv also said that the number of tourist arrivals in the occupied lands decreased by 24 percent in the third quarter of last year compared with the same period in 2013.

Israeli authorities are, meanwhile, under fire over growing poverty and unemployment.

There are reports that an increasing number of Israelis are renouncing their citizenship in search of a better life.

According to data collected by Israeli embassies abroad, the number of Israelis who requested to renounce their citizenship rose by 65 percent in 2014. (T/P011/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)