At the end of 2016, the macroeconomic picture for Israel is mixed. Although there has been a slowdown in economic growth in the past five years, in the labor market, the situation looks good with signs of movement towards full employment. The data for the first quarter of the year may have raised some concern of a recession, but in the course of the year, the growth figures actually improved and the GDP is expected to grow by 3.5 percent1 — a somewhat lower rate than in the past but higher than the growth rate of the last two years.

This introduction appears in the Center’s annual publication, State of the Nation Report 2016, edited by Prof. Avi Weiss.