- 著者
-
清水 学
- 出版者
- 独立行政法人 日本貿易振興機構アジア経済研究所
- 雑誌
- 中東レビュー (ISSN:21884595)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.4, pp.42-53, 2017 (Released:2019-11-12)
With its geopolitical implications, Israel’s presence in the Middle East is conspicuous. Over the last two decades, Israel has rapidly expanded its sphere of influence to other parts of the world through economic transactions. Its dramatic development has been supported by its economic globalisation and high-tech industry. Israel currently belongs with the developed economies as a member state of the OECD, with a per-capita income of US$ 35,000, and is often referred to as a “success story” that other countries can draw lessons from for their own economic development.Part One attempts to analyse the factors, mainly related to economic policies, which contributed to the paradigm shift in Israel’s development strategy from the Zionist socialistic ideology to the neoliberal globalising policy orientation. The turning point was the economic reform introduced in 1985, which enabled the Bank of Israel to play an independent and leading role in monetary and fiscal policies against the rampant hyperinflation at the time. However, it should be noted that the reform package was a co-product of Israel and the US administration, supported by financial assistance attached to the reform. For the US, an economically stabilized Israel was an essential strategic asset against the Soviet Union. Since then, various reforms were introduced gradually, such as liberalisation of the labour market, privatisation, liberalisation of the financial market, and capital transfers. However, the voluminous favourable grant from the US was essential in absorbing balance of payment constraints and various social tensions through the transition period. Therefore, Israel’s transition to a neoliberal globalised economy was not a model that could be easily imported by other developing countries in the region.