The Bank of Israel announced last week that the composite state-of-the-economy index rose 0.2% in June.



The composite state-of-the-economy index is a synthetic cyclical indicator for examining the direction in which real economic activity is moving, in real time. The rise of the index was the first since July, 2008.



The Bank of Israel said it is still too soon to assess whether the rise indicates a turning point in Israel's economy. The June rise reflects gains in foreign trade-related components of the index - export and import of goods. However, most of the other components declined. With regard to the components of the index: the index of manufacturing production fell by 1.5% in May, further to its drop of 0.9% in April.



The trade and services revenue index declined by 0.6% in May, after falling 3.1% in April. The services exports index dropped in June by 0.4%, after rising by 0.7% in May. The goods exports index registered a rise of 1.5% in June, following its rise of 7.8% in May. The imports index went up by 3.7% in June, after declining by 3.6% in May.