Brosh : drop in exports sharpest in 3.5 years

Shraga Brosh Manufacturers Association's president and Israel Export Institute chairman issue last week a press release indicating that Israel's industrial exports in the first quarter of 2005 were 5% down in real terms.
 
Brosh was replying tp figures published by the Central Bureau of Statistics which reported that industrial exports, excluding diamonds fell by an annualized 6.6% in the first quarter to $6.4 billion, and imports fell by an annualized 7.2% to $8.7 billion.
 
Brosh noted that exports totaled $5.96 billion, while export profitability also fell and added that the cost of labor per unit of export product rose by 3.5% in the first quarter.
 
He argued that the sharp decrease in exports could be attributed to the appreciation of the shekel against the dollar, a rise in labor costs, an emerging slowdown in Western markets which could have lowered demand for Israeli made goods and a decline in labor productivity.
 
Brosh added that such a sharp decline in industrial exports had not occurred in three and a half years, since the second quarter of 2001.