Israel - Current Account Balance





Israel: Current Account Balance

Mnemonic TAB.IISR
Unit Mil. USD, NSA
Adjustments Not Seasonally Adjusted
Quarterly 13.62 %
Data 2023 Q2 5,589
2023 Q1 4,919

Series Information

Source Central Bureau of Statistics - Israel
Release Balance of Payments
Frequency Quarterly
Start Date 3/31/1980
End Date 6/30/2023

Israel: Trade

Reference Last Previous Units Frequency
Exports of Goods Feb 2024 4,879 4,479 Mil. USD, SA Monthly
Imports of Goods Feb 2024 7,224 6,218 Mil. USD, SA Monthly
Exports of Goods and Services 2023 Q4 148,910 144,901 Mil. ILS, NSA Quarterly
Imports of Goods and Services 2023 Q4 120,656 134,298 Mil. ILS, NSA Quarterly
Net Exports 2023 Q4 28,254 10,603 Mil. ILS, NSA Quarterly
Current Account Balance 2023 Q2 5,589 4,919 Mil. USD, NSA Quarterly
Real Exports of Goods and Services 2016 344,869,514,200 336,309,389,300 NCU Annual
Real Imports of Goods and Services 2016 369,835,287,700 338,042,716,800 NCU Annual

Release Information

Concepts and definitions

Analytical Framework: General government transactions data referenced for SDDS purposes are organized for analytical purposes using the definitions of the System of National Accounts. The major economic aggregates include total revenue, expenditure (interest payments shown separately) and balance of general government, and financing transactions divided into domestic and foreign financing.

The revenue and expenditure comprises of both current and capital transactions. Revenue main categories are property income, taxes, current and capital transfers, foreign grants etc. The expenditure side consist of compensation of employees, net purchases of goods and services, interest payments, subsidies and transfer payments, gross capital formation, capital grants etc

Relationship with international guidelines: The data are based on the SNA guidelines, with the following deviation: Defense capital formation is recorded as final consumption expenditure.

Classification

Classification systems: Expenditure by function is classified according to the SNA classification of the functions of the government ( COFOG).

Revenue are broken down by type:

  • Current and capital expenditure are broken down by economic type, with interest payments separately identified
  • The overall balance (deficit/surplus) of general government; financing data are divided into external financing and domestic financing.

Scope of the data

Data cover all Government ministries, the National Insurance Institute, Government extra- budgetary funds, all local authorities, and non-profit institutions controlled and mainly financed by the government. The scope is consistent with the principles, definitions, and concepts of the 1993 SNA.

The GFS, as presented by the CBS in the context of national accounts, covers all transactions of units within its scope as presented in the Statement of Government Operations.

Exceptions to coverage

National institutions, i.e., the Jewish Agency, the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish National Fund, and the Jewish Foundation Fund, although neither financed nor fully controlled by the government are included in the general government sector.

Valuation

For domestic transaction, such as purchases of goods and services and GFCF, market prices are generally used.

Compensation of employees includes actual payments of wages and salaries plus actual and imputed employer's contributions for funded and unfunded pension funds and for other social schemes.

Valuation of foreign currency transactions: The conversion of foreign-currency-denominated transactions is made using the representative market exchange rates.

Recording basis

The accounts are, to the extent possible, based on the accrual recording of transactions, including the consumption of fixed capital and imputed government pension contributions, both of which are estimated on an accrual basis.

Different timing characteristics of the cash flows for the different types of taxes are taken into account, as necessary. Other central government revenues, such as interest and sales, are largely available on an accrual basis as are data on the compensation of employees and purchases of goods and services.

Grossing/netting procedures

Government transactions are compiled on a gross basis for revenue, expenditure, and financing for all sectors of the general government. The same principles apply to the stocks of financial assets and liabilities. Acquisitions and disposal of non-financial assets are in most cases presented net. Tax data are shown on net basis (after deduction of refunds).

Source data collection programs

The main sources of data include detailed disaggregated data obtained from the MOF (Accountant General and Budget Departments), the National Insurance Institution, the extra-budgetary funds and the extensive range of NPIs that are financed and controlled by government, and the local authorities.

The data for the budgetary central government and the social security scheme are derived from the actual detailed accounting records (administrative files) of these entities, as is data for local governments. These accounts are subject to the same stringent controls and audits as those of the central government.

A special questionnaire for data collection is used only for collecting sub-annual surveys, e.g., quarterly survey of the local authorities’ fixed capital formation, the activities of NPIs. Data covering the operations of local authorities, including transactions on financial and non-financial assets and liabilities are provided from the local governments.

Data for extra-budgetary units (including NPIs) also are covered by administrative records, which are supplemented by standardized financial reports, and questionnaires designed for statistical purposes, as relevant. Questionnaires also are sent to the smaller extra-budgetary units in selected branches (education, health, R&D, culture, and environmental protection services) on an annual basis. In addition, annual financial reports are collected.

Source data definitions, scope, classifications, valuation, and time of recording

The Accountant General’s annual budget execution reports along with complementary data from the Ministries of Finance and Defense provide the CBS with sufficiently detailed source data for statistical purposes covering the budgetary central government (in a national accounts context). The reports are arranged in accordance with the government budget framework and recording rules. The MOF’s Budget Department determines the structure of the reports, the level of the transaction specification and the economic classification codes.

The main drawbacks of the budget framework in respect of the consistency with internationally accepted definition and good practices, are as follows:

Coverage: only budgetary activity is covered, the extra-budgetary transactions are not included. Transactions in kind (i.e., United States government grants in defense equipment) are also not included;

Recording of economic transactions: the transactions are mainly recorded a on cash basis and in some cases net basis recording is used;

The content of transactions and their economic classification: The economic classification system used by the Treasury is not consistent with any internationally accepted classification system. As a result, many budgetary items are not homogeneous even at the lowest level of specification and include transactions of different economic types.

The source data on the local authorities and NPIs have a number of drawbacks similar to those of the Treasury’s data, as noted above.

Source data timeliness

Data for budgetary central government operations (including the National Insurance Institution) are available annually as well as quarterly, albeit with incomplete detail. The source data for the annual government accounts—audited budget execution reports—are submitted to the MOF’s Accountant General Department within six months for annual data from the end of the reference period and plans are in place to improve the timeliness to three months within 2007.

Data for extra-budgetary central government operations (including NPIs), where not covered by administrative records, are provided through the CBS estimates based on quarterly and annual surveys carried out by units within the CBS. Preliminary annual data are generally provided within twelve months after the end of the reference year and cover eighty percent of the total expenditure of this sub-sector. Final annual data for extra-budgetary central government units are provided between two to three years after the end of the reference year.

Data for local government operations are obtained through an analysis of their financial and budget reports. The first preliminary data—for the 70 municipalities that comprise approximately eighty percent of this sub-sector—are generally available from the CBS’s Infrastructure and Economic Department within fifteen to eighteen months after the end of reference year

Final data for all the local authorities are provided up to two years after the end of the reference year. More timely sources, are derived from estimates developed by the CBS’s Macroeconomics Department from payroll data, etc.

Source data assessment

Other than previously noted, no material gaps exist in the coverage of the general government sector. To the greatest extent possible, the final source data are based on audited accounts of all the general government units. The trade-off between timeliness and accuracy is well recognized and balanced. The strategy adopted is to compile and publish preliminary data as soon as reasonably complete and accurate data become available, and replace the preliminary data by revised data or final data after audited accounts have been produced.

The status of the data and any major quality reservations that compilers have about the data are routinely identified for follow-up when the data are compiled and disseminated. Revisions for past years’ annual and quarterly data, when necessary, are made once a year. During the current year, revisions are made on an ongoing basis, as necessary. Before the publication of this data, all tables are checked for internal consistency.

Source data statistical techniques

The use of statistical techniques is sound, and material differences in preliminary data and revised/final data are regularly studied and analysed for further improvements. For the general government as a whole, procedures are in place to estimate missing data and to minimize the processing errors. These procedures are based on accepted statistical processes. Preliminary data are replaced by revised data or final data, and data are corrected with more accurate data when available, if there are material differences. Staff identify discrepancies between flows and stocks, like in the net lending/borrowing approached from the real and financial sides.

Final annual data are generally collected from the administrative records and do not require estimation. If large units fail to report within requested time, they are reminded. Only in cases of the smaller NPIs outside of the four main branches, are the last year’s reports, supplemented by other sources, used as a basis for deriving estimates for use in compiling the preliminary data. As in the national accounts, the perpetual inventory method is used to estimate the written-down replacement costs of fixed assets, including infrastructure assets, to calculate the consumption of fixed capital. The value of the stocks is based on acquisitions and disposals that have been accumulated and revalued over a very long period. The value of the assets is the original acquisition value adjusted by an allowance for price changes (assumptions are made regarding the remaining service life of each asset) and written down for the accumulated consumption of fixed capital.

Other statistical procedures

The CBS seeks to use appropriate techniques when adjusting or transforming data. Any estimations employed (e.g., imputed pension contributions) are undertaken using well established procedures using constant price data that are known to source data providers. Appropriate bridge tables have been developed between the MOF’s, NPI’s and local authorities’ accounting systems and the CBS national accounts databases.

Validation of intermediate results

The main checking of the accounts regards the internal consistency of the balancing items. The consistency of the GFS data to the national accounts aggregates is checked, for example the government consumption and net acquisition of fixed assets (even though they are compiled from the same data sources). The consistency with other related data sources is checked. Controls are made regarding reported data on, inter alia, taxes and transfers between general government sectors as well as with the banking statistics, balance of payments statistics, data on foreign assets and liabilities, and the administrative register of securities, etc.

Assessment of intermediate data

Extensive plausibility checks are used to ensure that the statistics comply with specific regulations concerning timing, recording, and classification. Also, data are checked against corresponding data of other institutions (NPI’s and local authorities) and the CBS units (e.g., data on conditional grants from the United States government maintained by the BOP unit). Comparison with previous years’ data is carried out on the data reported by the various entities. Different categories of expenditure and revenue are compared. Direct contacts with counterparts of reporting entities are made, as needed.

Assessment of discrepancies and other problems in statistical outputs

All time series are checked for consistency by monitoring the trend of the time series, and any out-of-trend data are examined. If no explanation is found as regards the processing of the data, economic causes are examined. The identification of discrepancies leads to discussions with source data reporters and with the compilers of the statistics at the CBS.

Revision studies and analyses

The revision practice of general government account statistics is the same as that adopted for all the national accounts. The reasons for revisions are accounted for and analyzed. However, revisions are minimal due to the extensive use of accounting data as the source for compiling results, even at the preliminary stage.

Dissemination of revision studies and analyses

As regards government sector national accounts, current revisions are explained briefly in press releases (in Hebrew) and in the publication “Current Statistics”, as relevant. In addition, revisions, should they occur, are explained every year in the “Statistical Abstract of Israel”.

Dissemination on request

Non-published data (but non-confidential) are made available on request for free or sometimes for a charge. The availability and terms and conditions are published on the CBS Internet website (http://www.cbs.gov.il/freeinfo06.pdf).

Subject to revisions

The CBS maintains a comprehensive catalogue of its products and services, detailing how to obtain the product or service and its price if there is a charge. The CBS website indexes the current and previous issues of the quarterly and annual releases of national accounts, including general government accounts, and related tabulations of longer time series. The website includes information on publication prices and charging policy for supply of non-published data.