Nevertheless, it must be borne in mind that economic growth in Israel is affected also by international economic developments, and here it should be noted that currently there is uncertainty regarding the growth of the global economy.
On the positive side, data relating to the Japanese economy in the first quarter of 2005 indicate a very rapid growth rate of about 5 percent in annual terms, but at the same time growth in Europe was very weak and the OECD cut its forecast growth for the eurozone to only 1.2 percent for 2005.