Israel's trade deficit in the first half of 2021 rose by about 69 percent year-on-year, the state's Central Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
The Israeli trade deficit reached 15.4 billion U.S. dollars in January-June this year, up from 9.1 billion dollars in the same period of last year.
Israel's exports of goods in the first half of 2021 totaled 26.7 billion dollars, a rise of 14.1 percent from the 23.4 billion dollars in the same period in 2020.
Israel's imports totaled 42.1 billion dollars in the first six months, 29.5 percent higher than the 32.5 billion dollars recorded in the first half of last year.
The country's hi-tech industry exports rose by 19.5 percent in January-June 2021 to 9.2 billion dollars, up from 7.7 billion dollars in the same period of last year.