industrial sectors over the past 20 years. Israel
is largely self-sufficient in food production except for grains.
Diamonds, high-technology equipment, and agricultural products (fruits
and vegetables) are leading exports. Israel usually posts sizable
current account deficits, which are covered by large transfer payments
from abroad and by foreign loans. Roughly half of the government's
external debt is owed to the US, which is its major source of economic
and military aid. The influx of Jewish immigrants from the former USSR
topped 750,000 during the period 1989-99, bringing the population of
Israel from the former Soviet Union to 1 million, one-sixth of the
total population, and adding scientific and professional expertise of
substantial value for the economy's future. The influx, coupled with
the opening of new markets at the end of the Cold War, energized
Israel's economy, which grew rapidly in the early 1990s. But growth
began slowing in 1996 when the government imposed tighter fiscal and
monetary policies and the immigration bonus petered out. Those
policies brought inflation down to record low levels in 1999 and,
coupled with improved prospects for the Middle East peace process, are
creating a climate for stronger GDP growth in the year 2000.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $105.4 billion (1999 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 2.1% (1999 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $18,300 (1999 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 2%
industry: 17%
services: 81% (1997 est.)

Population below poverty line: NA%

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.8%
highest 10%: 26.9% (1992)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 1.3% (1999 est.)

Labor force: 2.3 million (1997)

Labor force - by occupation: public services 31.2%, manufacturing
20.2%, finance and business 13.1%, commerce 12.8%, construction 7.5%,
personal and other services 6.4%, transport, storage, and
communications 6.2%, agriculture, forestry, and fishing 2.6% (1996)

Unemployment rate: 9.1% (1999 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $40 billion
expenditures: $42.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(2000 est.)

Industries: food processing, diamond cutting and polishing, textiles
and apparel, chemicals, metal products, military equipment, transport
equipment, electrical equipment, potash mining, high-technology
electronics, tourism

Industrial production growth rate: 5.4% (1996)

Electricity - pr