The Israeli economy grew by an annualised 15.4pc in the second quarter, due largely to the lifting of a coronavirus lockdown, as officials labour to avert another one.

The figure published yesterday by the Central Bureau of Statistics marked a significant turnaround from the first quarter, when the economy contracted by a revised 1.4pc.

Growth was also buoyed by a significant increase in the import of passenger cars compared to the first quarter of 2021, according to the statistics bureau.

The Israeli economy has bounced back swiftly after suffering an economic contraction of 2.5pc in 2020 due to the pandemic. A thriving high tech scene, relatively low borrowing costs and strong private consumption are all helping to push the economy forward, with the Bank of Israel predicting gross domestic product will grow 5.5pc this year.

Clouding the outlook is a recent spike in Covid-19 cases due to the highly transmissible delta variant. The new government led by Naftali Bennett has vowed to do everything possible to try to prevent another damaging lockdown, but hasn't ruled one out.
Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron told Bloomberg News last week that another one-month lockdown could drag down growth forecasts for 2021 by half a percentage point.