The Israeli economy is in serious danger because of the Coronavirus

The state of great paralysis in the world because of the emerging Coronavirus affected the economies of countries, which happened naturally in Israel, and the cause of the spread of the virus about 800 thousand unemployed after the closure of factories, institutions and public places, is what prompted them to demand unemployment benefits from labor offices deployed in Israel .

For his part, after the Director General of the National Insurance Institute “Social Security Institution” Meir Spiegler to the newspaper “Maariv”, saying that the institution began preparing to face the cases of bankruptcy of thousands of companies and commercial interests due to the Coronavirus and the measures taken to confront it, explaining that the institution needs more than one billion NIS as unemployment benefits.

Moreover, the Israeli government feared that the number of the unemployed would reach 800,000 unemployed, as this would quickly eliminate the surplus of social security, with expectations of entering into an economic recession with the absence of a financial committee in Parliament due to the decision to disrupt the work of the Knesset due to The spread of the virus, and the sources added that the number of unemployed will pass one million.

In connection with the foregoing, Israeli economic authorities estimated that the direct losses resulting from the spread of the Coronavirus and the disruption of life in various parts of the country would reach about 140 billion shekels.

According to the Hebrew newspaper (Yisrael Hume), the Ministry of Finance and economic authorities concerned, confirmed the existence of consecutive losses of GDP, which will further deteriorate the economic situation.

The Ministry of Finance estimated that the near-complete closure and increased economic contraction with the spread of the virus and the increase in the rate of infections would lead Israel to a significant economic loss of up to 140 billion shekels.

What is known as indirect losses, and the economic emergency plan will be approved by the Israeli government by the Ministry of Finance, which showed that it was not prepared for such a plan.

The Governor of the Bank of Israel, Professor Amir Yaron, said in a press conference by phone yesterday that without health there is no economy, but without the economy there will be no health, and he indicated that the depth of damage to the Israeli economy will be determined by the nature of economic policy in light of this crisis.

He called for supporting companies after the crisis ended and removing restrictions, calling at the same time to support those affected, especially the laid-off workers, as he put it.

The number of affected people reached more than 800,000, who became unemployed throughout Israel, while economists estimated the size of Israel’s direct and indirect losses as a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus at 45 billion shekels (12.9 billion dollars), sources said in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli channel 12 quoted Israeli experts as saying that the recent measures announced by the Tel Aviv government to reduce the private sector’s work by 70 percent and the declaration of emergency in the public sector will exacerbate the losses, and yesterday, Thursday, Israel declared a state of emergency in the public sector, as part of new measures to reduce Coronavirus spread, also included the use of security methods and techniques.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, the total number of people infected with the Coronavirus has reached 2,459.

And the channel reported, that the rate of GDP growth will decrease due to the spread of the virus locally and abroad, and that the impact of the virus globally will have local repercussions.

An expanded report of the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth stated that Israel will lose eight billion shekels (2.16 billion dollars) until the end of this month, due to the measures taken to confront the virus.

The newspaper pointed out that the losses will be only from the state treasury and do not include the losses of the private sector and the public sector from other parts.

It also indicated that this number of losses will be only due to the lack of collection of income tax and value-added tax, purchase taxes and tariffs, with increased government spending, In the words of the economists who spoke to the newspaper.

Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, Monday, said the government would increase the size of an aid package to support companies affected by the Corona virus crisis by an additional five billion shekels ($ 1.3 billion).

This amount is added to a package of ten billion shekels announced last week, including eight billion in a fund to provide cheap loans to companies.