Israel's economic growth declined sharply in the second quarter of 2014, as export, the country's main growth engine, continues to go down, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday.
The gross domestic product (GDP) dropped to 1.7 percent in the second quarter after reaching 2.8 percent in the first quarter and 2.5 percent in the last quarter of 2013.
The slow growth is explained mainly by a 17.7 percent drop in exports, which account for some 40 percent of Israel's economic activity. The second quarter's results continue a trend of sluggish export. In the first half of 2014, exports increased by merely 0.9 percent, following a negligible increase of 0.6 percent in the second half of 2013.
Israel's central bank had projected that the Israeli economy will grow by 2.9 percent in 2014, but some analysts estimate that Israel's military campaign in Gaza, which began on July 8, will lower this forecast by 0.25-0.5 percentage point.