The economy has returned to the forefront of the upcoming elections. The greatest battle being fought by Labor and Likud, between Shelly Yachimovich and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is over the data.
At a press conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Yachimovich criticized the current administration's economic policy.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry released data that showed Israel's economic growth as the highest among Western nations in the last four years.
The Labor chairwoman outlined the cuts that analysts expect Netanyahu to make following the elections, and presented her party's alternative budget plan. Yachimovich also said that Netanyahu was planning to cut the budget of all government offices by five percent. According to Yachimovich, such cuts would have a direct impact on education, healthcare and welfare services.
Yachimovich went on to predict that the government will cancel free education for children aged 3-4, raise university tuition by 50%, cause the price of prescription drugs to rise by 20%, hike the cost of visiting an HMO physician by up to 50%, cut the balanced budget of local authorities and cut the budget allocated to day-care centers by 20 percent.
"Netanyahu is responsible for the 20 million shekel budget gap. How does he explain strong economic growth when our citizens have become so weak?" Yachimovich asked. "Everyone needs to ask himself if life has become simpler. Has job security gotten better? Is it easier to buy an apartment? And how has the price of foodstuffs risen by 6% – the steepest increase in food prices worldwide?"
"We are offering a different economic outlook," Yachimovich pledged. "We will ease taxes on the middle class through a progressive value added tax (VAT). We won't touch small and medium-sized businesses. Rather, we'll offer access to morally-allocated government funds in order to fill the void that Netanyahu himself created."
"Only now are we experiencing the most difficult increases in the price of water, electricity, and all the other expenses that constitute a regular person's life. What we're seeing today is just the promo of what's to come the day after the elections," she said.
Yachimovich explained that she timed the press conference – on January 1 – to coincide with the date that the government initially planned to implement the new budget.
In response, Likud-Beytenu released a statement saying Yachimovich's statements were aimed at misleading the public: "Yachimovich presents new, imaginary figures to the public every day. Her findings today represent a fresh lie regarding the expected cuts in our [national] budget. The data presented by Yachimovich today are completely erroneous and meant to mislead the public."
Despite Yachimovich's bleak outlook, the Finance Ministry released data on Monday that positioned Israel's economic growth in the last four years above all other OECD nations. Israel also ranked first in job creation, according to the ministry's data.
Israel's economy grew by 14.7% between 2009-2012, at an average rate of 3.7% per year.
Australia – which was ranked second on the list – experienced economic growth to the tune of 10.7% over the same time period. Canada's growth was limited to 4.8% in the last period, the U.S. 3.2%, Germany 2.7%, and France saw a mere 0.3% growth. The Eurozone experienced a net decrease of 1.5% in the last four years.
"There is fact, and then there's interpretation and half-truths," Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said. "Israel traversed the international economic crisis of the last four years better than all other developed, Western countries."
The data also pointed to a drop in unemployment from 9.5% in 2009 to 6.8% in 2012. Israel was also the only country in the group of Western nations where quality of life increased, the data showed. The gap between rich and poor also shrunk since 2010, according to the Finance Ministry's findings.