The government has underestimated expected tax receipts for 2008, economists from the Finance Ministry's Economics and Research department and from Harel Insurance investments have charged. The government the past three years has quietly amassed a surplus of several billion dollars.
The proposed 2008 budget puts the annual deficit at 1.6 percent of gross domestic product, almost half the maximum that the American government has allowed as a condition for receiving economic aid. Harel economists said that the budget deficit actually will be negligible.