Israel's current account surplus in Q2 up 106 pct year on year

Source: Xinhua | 2019-09-16

Israel's current account surplus jumped to 4.21 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2019, up 106 percent year on year, said a balance of payments report on Sunday.
The report, released by the state's Central Bureau of Statistics, said that in the first quarter of 2019, the current account surplus totaled 2.77 billion U.S. dollars.
The amount includes the transactions of Israeli residents with abroad in the goods, services, primary income (income from financial investments and employee wages) and secondary income (current transfers) in current U.S. dollars and seasonal effect deduction.
According to the data, the balance of goods and services amounted to a surplus of 1.55 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2019, following a surplus of 1.37 billion U.S. dollars in the previous quarter.
Exports of hi-tech services (excluding start-up companies) totaled 7.3 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2019, up 16 percent compared to the same period in 2018.
Israeli imports of services totaled 7.7 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2019, similar to the previous quarter.
The total of direct investments by Israeli residents abroad was increased by 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 2.3 billion U.S. dollars in the previous quarter.