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Al-Aqsa Flood gives Israeli economy ‘COVID-19 like symptoms’

The Cradle | October 30, 2023

The historic Al-Aqsa Flood operation has not only battered Israeli settlements and the security forces, but the war has also taken flight against the Israeli market.

Economists are looking at the operation that hit the $520 Billion economy with memories of the COVID-19 effects, saying that orders for schools, offices, and building sites to close or only open for a few hours are like the days of the pandemic. 

Adding to the affected workforce, the Israeli government amassed 350,000 reservists for its much-awaited ground invasion, draining about eight percent of the Israeli workforce. 

Mizrahi-Tefahot, a top Israeli bank, says that the mass mobilization order and partial economic freezes are costing the government the equivalent of $2.5 billion per month. The Israeli central bank has said that the economic state will only worsen as the war goes on. 

Israeli stocks are the world’s worst performing since the beginning of the war. The Shekel is at its weakest level since 2012, despite the $45 billion emergency package or the selling off of $30 Billion in foreign reserves to try and save the currency from sinking further.

Markets won’t fair well with a long war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of a “long war” as he prepares for a ground invasion. 

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the US multinational financial services firm, has said that they believe the Israeli economy is shrinking 11 percent on an annualized basis, saying that their initial projections about the economic impact were “too optimistic.”

The financial firm’s projections are among Wall Street’s most cynical, but investors have been selling off Israeli assets heavily. 

“Gauging the impact of the war on Israel’s economy remains difficult both due to still very high uncertainty about the scale and duration of the conflict and the lack of high-frequency data at hand,” JPMorgan analysts said. 

Having one of the strongest economies in the world, Israel hasn’t seen an economic hit this bad since the 2006 war between them and Hezbollah, the physical damage cost of which has already been topped by the Palestinian factions.  

The Israeli business press has said the nation has entered a recession. Israeli daily The Market has previously written that “Israel has entered the war, and it is in a recession, and trade is currently zero.”

October 31, 2023 - Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , ,

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