Israel’s accumulated deficit over the last 12 months shrank by 0.4 percentage points and stood at 5.3% of gross domestic product as of February, the Finance Ministry said on Monday in a first estimate.
The February monthly deficit stood at NIS 6.1 billion, compared to last February’s deficit of NIS 13.6 billion, the ministry added.
Since the beginning of the year, the country has seen a surplus of NIS 16.7 billion compared to a deficit of NIS 11.5 billion for the same period in the previous year.
February saw a state income of NIS 39.6 billion, and since the beginning of the year, state income stood at NIS 102.7 billion. The rate of change of government income stood at 29.7% when comparing January and February of 2024 to 2025.
Significant tax changes were implemented at the beginning of the year
This follows significant tax changes that were implemented at the start of 2025 – one of the measures put in place to contend with the economic impacts of the Israel-Hamas War.
The state’s expenses since the start of the year stood at around NIS 86 billion, compared to NIS 90.7 billion for the same period last year.
This decrease is mostly due to the continued decrease in war expenditure and the impact of the government’s current use of a provisional budget, which limits some expenses.
Defense Ministry spending dropped 30.7% when compared to the same period last year, while ministry spending on social issues increased slightly.