Lapid admits to unprecedented costs of war

Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid has admitted to the unprecedented costs the war on Gaza has inflicted on the regime, adding that low growth in the Israeli economy was sure.

The finance minister told a news conference on Sunday that the Israeli tourism sector will sustain the largest impact, according to Reuters.

The minister acknowledged that the costs of the war were far more than what the Zionist regime expected, noting that the war was the longest one since the regime was faked in 1948.

The war against Hamas in Gaza, which ran into a 50th day on Tuesday, has taken a heavy toll, hitting tourism, slowing consumer spending as people stay indoors and denting manufacturing, especially in plants close to Gaza.

According to Reuters, even before the genocidal conflict began on July 8, Israel growth was weakening so that a preliminary estimate showed the economy grew an annualized 1.7 percent in the second quarter, down from 2.8 percent in the first, while unemployment inched above 6 percent from 5.7 percent in late 2013.

With a concerned central bank expecting the war to knock around half a percentage point off output, forecasts for growth of around 3 percent this year now look wildly optimistic, and the budget deficit is likely to exceed its 3 percent target.

Israeli government is now going to cut on the budget of other ministries by two percent to make for the deficit the minister of ‘defense’ (war) has sustained in the war on Gaza.