Secretary General Angel Gurria of the Organization for Economic Coordination and Development (OECD) met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Tuesday morning, regarding Israel's economy and trends in the global economy. Gurria will hold a similar meeting, Tuesday evening with President Shim'on Peres, and take part in a forum on social policy with Governor Stanley Fisher of the Bank of Israel and Professor Manuel Trajtenberg.
Referring to the Trajtenberg Committee report on socioeconomic change during a news conference with Gurria and Steinitz, Netanyahu said his administration's policies were correct, against centralized wealth and in favor of social justice. He continued, "You cannotachievesocial justicewithout growth.Israel keptthis balance.Wepassed the [international financial] crisisgiantsuccessfullyalmostbetter thanall the OECD countries.We also madea quartermillion jobs,we also grewandwe also reducedthe[national] debt.We manageditin a responsible mannerandwe reducedpoverty."