JERUSALEM, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- The annual expenditure of Israeli government ministries jumped by 23 billion new shekels (about 6.34 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, and by 50 percent since the beginning of the decade, according to financial reports released Wednesday by the State's Accountant General at the Ministry of Finance.
The reports show that in 2017, Israel's government spending jumped to 310 billion new shekels (about 85.4 billion U.S. dollars), compared with 287 billion new shekels (79 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, and 202 billion new shekels (55.67 billion U.S. dollars) in 2010.
At the same time, a jump in Israel's tax revenues was recorded in 2017, but while the increase in expenses is constant, the increase in revenues was mostly based on one-time sums of 20 billion new shekels (5.51 billion U.S. dollars). These revenues were mostly at the expense of future tax revenues.
Most of the increase was in spending by civil ministries. The Ministry of Health's budget has grown by 77 percent since 2010, the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services' budget by 68 percent, and the Ministry of Education's budget by 65 percent.
The defense expenses increased by 2.5 billion new shekels (690 million U.S. dollars), compared with 2016, and reached 64.9 billion new shekels (17.89 billion U.S. dollars).
The report shows that spending by civil ministries reached a peak of 19.3 percent of GDP in 2017, one percent higher than in 2016.
Defense spending remained steady at 5.2 percent of GDP, while interest payments on the government debt dropped from 2.5 percent of GDP in 2016 to 2.3 percent in 2017.
The trend of rapid growth in expenditure continued in 2018, which is not included in the reports, when the year already appears to have crossed the three percent line for the first time in the term of the current government that took office in May 2015.
