The Israeli economy grew by 4.7 percent, in 2011, just below the 5% economists had originally anticipated, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics’ latest report, released Thursday. But Israel still outperformed other European nations, which saw sluggish 2% growth rate last year.

The report shows that economic activity expanded at a more moderate pace than the 4.8% rate of the previous year. But economic indicators show a marked improvement from the anemic 0.8% seen in 2009, as the world was reeling from the global financial crisis.

The revised Bank of Israel economic forecast suggests the Israeli economic activity will somewhat taper off in 2012, and is expected to grow by only 2.8%. In 2013, this figure might rise to 3.7%. The International Monetary Fund and the prestigious economic weekly The Economist have also recently predicted that Israel will experience a slowdown in 2012, with the economy growing by less than 3%.

Meanwhile, news agencies reported Thursday that the Greek government had received the necessary go-ahead on its request for certain debts to be written off. This is the first step toward the implementation of Greece’s debt restructuring agreement with foreign lenders. The agreement, as part of Europe’s massive bailout of the Greek economy, was introduced several months ago to avert a regional economic meltdown in light of fears that Greece might default on its loans.