Anybody Want to Buy a State? $4.5 Trillion Is All You Need

How much is Israel “worth?” The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has the answer, and at a gala celebration Tuesday morning, the TASE declared the combined assets from Israeli manufacturing, services and other sectors to be valued at a grand total of NIS 17.6 trillion (approximately $4.5 trillion at current exchange rates). On an interactional scale of “national values” of 143 countries, Israel ranks “very high,” TASE officials said.

The valuation is an “educated estimate” based on the values of assets, sales, stocks and private wealth that were culled from a survey by the TASE of companies on the stock exchange, as well as smaller firms that are privately owned. The study was undertaken as part of the 70th anniversary celebration of the TASE.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said at the event that “my responsibility as Finance Minister is to prepare the country for financial crisis. I can assure you that those crises will transpire at some point. But we will always keep our eyes focused on growth. An economy and state that is not growing will do the opposite. Growth means security, growth means money to grow stronger, or for any other purpose. We are aiming for an annual growth rate of 5 percent. We are already growing at an average of 3.3 percent in recent years. We just need a little bit of a push,” Kahlon said.