The Bank of Israel announced on Thursday that its Composite State of the Economy Index for February 2018 increased by approximately 0.4 percent, "slightly high compared with its growth in previous months and similar to its average rate of increase in 2017."
The bank said, "The Index was positively impacted by an increase in imports of consumer goods and of manufacturing inputs in February and by an increase in Industrial Production in January. The decline in goods exports in February, the slight declines in services and retail trade revenue in January and the decrease in building starts in the final quarter of 2017 moderated the Index’s rate of growth. The Index’s readings for previous months were revised slightly downward.