JERUSALEM, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli government's expenses for the ongoing conflict with Hamas have amounted to 52.5 billion shekels (14.2 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of March, the country's Finance Ministry said on Monday.
The high conflict expenses increased the Israeli government's 12-month budget deficit to 117.3 billion shekels between April 2023 and March 2024, or 6.2 percent of its GDP, compared to 105.1 billion shekels and 5.6 percent of GDP at the end of February.
For a year-on-year comparison, a 12-month deficit of 300 million shekels was recorded in the Israeli budget between April 2022 and March 2023.
Also on Monday, Israel's central bank decided to keep the base interest rate unchanged at 4.5 percent.
Despite inflation of just 2.5 percent year-on-year, the central bank decided to exercise caution and not cut the interest rate given a substantial increase in geopolitical uncertainty. ■
