Israel's fiscal deficit in 2019 amounted to 3.7% of gross domestic product, according to figures released by the Finance Ministry on Tuesday. The deficit thus exceeded the government goal, set at 2.9% of GDP, by some 12 billion shekels ($3.4 billion).
The Finance Ministry attributed the gap between the deficit goals and the final performance to the fact that the state's tax revenues were NIS 9.2 billion ($2.6 billion) lower than predicted, while expenditure was NIS 2.8 billion ($808 million) higher.
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Ministry data showed that government spending grew by 7.1% in 2019, while the planned growth stood at 6%. Defense spending grew by 2.9% when only a 1.7% growth was planned in the budget.
Also on Tuesday, the Bank of Israel said that the country's foreign currency reserves for 2019 stood at a record $126 billion, up $3.64 billion from November 2019. The figure represents 32.8% of GDP, the bank said.
