"New taxation will not help any,” Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz told "Bloomberg yesterday regarding the growing budget deficit. "Even if we have zero deficit, or even if government revenues would go up dramatically, it won’t help."
Steinitz added that Israel would find NIS 14 billion of savings by reducing spending rather than increasing taxes and may consider raising additional financing on domestic or international markets.
Commenting on the start of natural gas production at the Tamar offshore field, Steinitz said, "All the added value of Israeli production was going down because we had to import more material, more energy. We didn’t have the cheap gas from Egypt. Therefore, this will help us to increase economic growth in 2013."
Steinitz said that he expects GDP to expand by 3.5% in 2013, and rise to 3.8% in 2014 as natural gas production starts and on expectations more international companies will open research and development centers in Israel
The Central Bureau of Statistics says that GDP growth slowed to 3.3% in 2012 from 4.6% in 2011 and 5% in 2010.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 9, 2013
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