Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Jewish leaders from around the world at the Knesset on November 1, 2016 (screen capture: YouTube)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday welcomed Israel’s new A+ credit rating from the prestigious Fitch Ratings, attributing it to his government’s “responsible economic policy.”
“More good news for the economy of Israel: the international credit rating company Fitch raised Israel’s credit rating to the level of A+ with a stable outlook. Israel is rated at this high rating in all three international companies S&P, Moody’s and Fitch,” the prime minister wrote in Hebrew on Facebook.
“The rise comes due to the responsible economic policy I led together with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon,” he says. “We will continue strengthening our economy and leading Israel’s economy responsibly.”
Israel has been rated A1 with a stable outlook by Moody’s since mid-April 2008.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon presents the budget for 2016-2017 to the Knesset in Jerusalem, November 2, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Standard & Poor’s rated Israel A+ in September 2009, and has retained this rating to the present.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories
Fitch’s rating of A+ comes after it rated the country at A for nearly a decade. In April, the organization ranked Israel as A with a “positive” outlook.
All agencies rate Israel as having a stable or positive outlook. The last time the country was rated with a negative outlook was in 2002.
Advertisement
We can't do this work alone.
The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this,please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
