If, as the Finance Ministry predicts, the country's per capita growth will stay at 2.1 percent for 2006, Israel will not make it the list of the world's top 10 economies.
In fact, it will fall from its current position among the world's top 30 economies, said Shraga Brosh, president of the Manufacturers' Association.
According to Brosh, Israel needs a 2.4 percent per capita growth rate just to keep its 22nd place in the world GDP rating.
The International Monetary Fund predicts a growth rate of 2.5 percent from top economies and 4.2 percent from awakening Asian markets - double what is expected of Israel.
Bad signs
Brosh said he is worried about the Finance Ministry's forecast for unemployment.
It is a mistake, he said, to look at changes in the unemployment rate without looking into the total growth of the national workforce - which is expected to grow by only 0.2 percent and stand at 55.1 percent - as opposed to 66 percent in the United States and 58 percent in Europe.
Brosh said the forecast that investment in fixed assets will increase by five percent is not very impressive.
The percentage of fixed asset investment has been decreasing since the 1990s.
Brosh said investment and production is likewise not good. Israel's rate of goods production (6.8 percent) is lower than that of the world average (7.6 percent) - representing a sizeable retreat of Israeli producers from the world market.
He called upon the finance minister to develop a more growth-inducing budget. He said the answer to greater growth is not the growth in the public sector but investment in infrastructure and supporting mid-sized and small businesses.
