Israel's budget deficit for the period running from February 2018 through January 2019 stood at 3.3% of GDP, showing a surge in expenditures.
The official target deficit for 2019 is 2.9 % of GDP, or NIS 40.2 billion ($11 billion). But according to the Finance Ministry, Israel is currently on track to see a deficit of 3.6% in 2019, or NIS 50 billion ($14 billion), the highest since 2003.
The figures also show that the expenditures in January were particularly high and ended with a NIS 800 million ($219 million) deficit. This is the highest budget deficit for January in 15 years.
The State Comptroller's Office said it would look into the figures to see whether they accurately reflect expenditures, as it does every year.
But this year, the Finance Ministry is under particular scrutiny in light of suggestions that officials used accounting tricks to push certain expenditures into 2019 so that the government would meet its target deficit for 2018, 2.95% of GDP.
