With 2021 coming to a close, Israel’s Ministry of Economic Affairs released new data for the year. One figure that stood out was an impressive increase of almost 20 percent in exports, valued at close to $140 billion. The data also showed the strength and importance of the high-tech sector in the Israeli economy.
The Ministry’s Foreign Trade Administration noted this was the first time that the export of services exceeded the export of goods, with an anticipated 51 percent of all exports. Service exports are, for the most part, high-tech products such as programs, cybersecurity both offensive and defensive, and more. The greatest export growth was sales of start-up companies, which grew by no less than 257 percent. Exports involving programming grew by 25 percent, while the export of research and development services grew by 15 percent.