Israel – The Hebrew newspaper “Maariv” revealed yesterday that 46 thousand Israeli companies have closed their doors since the outbreak of the war on October 7, with expectations that the number will rise to 60 thousand companies by the end of this year.
The newspaper said in a report: “46,000 companies have been closed since the beginning of the war, according to the business information company Coface Bdi, which has been providing business information for credit risk management for 35 years, and works to analyze and classify all companies and institutions in the Israeli economy.
“This is a very high number that includes many sectors,” Yoel Amir, CEO of Coface Bdi, was quoted as saying.
He explained that regarding 77 percent of the companies that have been closed since the beginning of the war, which constitute regarding 35 thousand companies, are small companies and are the most vulnerable in the Israeli economy.
He pointed out that the sectors that suffered severe damage are the construction industry, and other industries that revolve around it, such as ceramics, air conditioning, aluminum, and building materials.
Amir added that among the sectors that were also severely affected during the war were “the trade sector, which includes the fashion, footwear, furniture and household appliances industries, and the services sector, which includes cafes, entertainment and leisure services, and transportation.”
Among them, according to Amir, is “the tourism industry, which is experiencing a situation in which foreign tourism is almost non-existent, along with the decline in the national mood and tourist areas that have become combat zones, and of course also the agricultural sector, most of which is located in combat zones in the south and north, and suffers from a shortage of workers.”
According to the data revealed, the construction sector was affected by regarding 27 percent, the services sector by regarding 19 percent, the industry and agriculture sector by regarding 17 percent, and the trade sector by regarding 12 percent.
The high-tech and advanced technology industry was affected by regarding 11 percent and the food and beverage industry by regarding 6 percent, according to the same source.
“The damage in combat zones is more severe, but the damage to businesses is across the country, with almost no sector spared,” Amir said.
“The damage is very significant in all aspects for the Israeli economy,” the CEO of Coface Bdi noted, explaining that “in the end, when companies close their doors and are unable to pay their debts, there is also environmental damage to customers, suppliers and companies that are part of their operating system.”
He added: “Apart from companies closing their doors, there has been a sharp decline in business activity in various sectors since the beginning of the war.”
Amir confirmed that in a recent opinion poll conducted by his company, regarding 56 percent of managers of commercial companies in Israel said that there had been a significant decline in the scope of their activities since the beginning of the war.
He continued, saying: “We estimate that by the end of 2024, regarding 60,000 companies are expected to close in Israel. For comparison, in 2020, the year of the Corona crisis, regarding 74,000 companies closed.”
He noted that Israeli companies face “very difficult challenges in the form of labor shortages, declining sales, a high interest rate environment and high financing costs, transportation and logistics problems, shortages of raw materials, and inaccessibility of agricultural land in combat zones,” as well as “the unavailability of customers involved in the fighting, flow difficulties, and increases in purchasing costs.”
In light of the Gaza war, most of the economic sectors in Israel are still suffering from the consequences of the ongoing war on the Strip since last October.
The war left more than 126,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of dozens of children.
Tel Aviv continues the war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolutions to stop it immediately, and the International Court of Justice orders to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Anatolia
#Hebrew #newspaper #thousand #Israeli #companies #closed #doors #October
2024-07-14 13:05:43
