Israel's goods imports from China up 40.8 pct in Jan-May

Israel's imports of goods from China increased by 40.8 percent year-on-year in the first five months of 2022, excluding diamonds, according to a report issued by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

Israeli import value from China in January-May totalled 5.45 billion U.S. dollars, compared to 3.87 billion dollars in the same period in 2021, showed the report.

Israel's imports from China in the first five months have already exceeded half of the total imports recorded last year in value, which is 10.7 billion dollars, according to the report.

The official figures show that China was Israel's largest source of imports in January-May, reaching 12.5 percent of all Israeli imports, excluding diamonds. Imports from the United States, second on Israel's imports list, accounted for 8.4 percent of the total.

In May alone, Israel's imports from China totalled 1.04 billion dollars, a 33.7-percent rise year-on-year.

Israeli exports to China increased by 3.9 percent to 1.87 billion dollars in January-May from the 1.8 billion dollars same period last year.

Total Israeli imports in the first five months of 2022 amounted to 46.39 billion dollars, an increase of 30.5 percent, while Israeli exports amounted to 29.95 billion dollars, an increase of 27.6 percent.