Services exports data for November and for Jan-Nov 2017

January 25, 2018

 

Bottom line:  November was an(other) excellent month for service exports, which are continuing to achieve rapid rates of expansion across the board, not just in the high-tech sectors. While it is the latter that provide the main thrust, both in the narrow context of service exports and for the overall economy, the strength of the tourist sector — despite the continued rise in the shekels’s value! — is also very significant for the labour market and hence from a socio-political perspective.

Specifics:

• Total service exports for November, in ‘original data’ terms — i.e. the actual amount of exports — totaled $3.928, the third-highest this year, but by far the highest-ever for November.
• In seasonally-adjusted terms, service exports totaled $3.997bn in November, second only to June 2017 as a monthly total and a record for any November.
• Total service exports for Jan-Nov, seasonally adjusted, have already crossed the $40bn. mark — a level never yet reached even for a full year.
• All the main sub-sectors of service exports reported strong growth in November (compared to November 2016).
• Revenues from sales of start-ups were up 6.5% (to $1.7bn) in Jan-Nov. over the same period in 2016 — after falling in the first half of the year.
• High-tech service exports for November alone, excluding start-up sales, jumped 20% over the Nov. 2016 figure, to almost $2bn (seasonally-adjusted).
• Income from tourism rose by some 16% in January-November.
• The core high-tech sub-sector of ‘Computer programming, consultancy & related activities, data processing, hosting & related activities, web portals’ posted a 14% gain in Jan-Nov. over the same period in 2016.

N.B. The CBS report of service exports compares the March data to February in seasonally-adjusted terms. IMHO, a more valid and useful comparison is with the same month last year, as presented above — as well as a quarter-on-quarter comparison.