By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel’s budget deficit for 2026 needs to be no more than 4% of gross domestic product, a senior Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday.
While the economy is strong and resilient, defence spending is high and risks harming civilian outlays such as in education, health, welfare and infrastructure, said Yali Rothenberg, Israel’s Accountant General.
A spending balance is needed to “ensure that defence spending does not overshadow priorities,” Rothenberg said at the Israel Democracy Institute’s annual economics conference.
Defence spending has jumped since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel. The budget deficit in 2024 reached 6.9% of GDP although it has since eased to 5.1% in April. The debt-to-GDP ratio rose 7.7 points last year to 69%.
“We need to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio,” Rothenberg said. “The year 2026 will be very important – a test year – we need to restore fiscal space and we need a budget for 2026, because a budget creates certainty and we need certainty for all government ministries.”
He noted that in cutting the deficit next year to 3-4% of GDP, it “will require difficult decisions; but this is the core of fiscal governance – not just numbers but choosing priorities.”
The 2025 wartime budget, which was delayed and approved in March, features a series of tax hikes and spending reductions on non-defence areas aimed at preventing the deficit from becoming unsustainable while Israel finances its military conflict.
Rothenberg said additional investments in infrastructure are needed given Israel’s high annual population growth, such as more power plants through public-private partnerships.
(Reporting by Steven ScheerEditing by Bernadette Baum)
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