Israel's central bank warns of economic slowdown over low employment of Arab women, ultra-orthodox Jewish men

JERUSALEM, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A report by Israel's central bank said on Wednesday that the country's GDP growth is expected to decline significantly given the low employment of Arab-Israeli women and ultra-orthodox Jewish men.

In its annual 2018 report, the Bank of Israel warned that the GDP growth will drop to an average of 2.7 percent in 2017-2035 and 2.4 percent by 2065, from an average of 3.3 percent in 2000-2016.

The main reason for the expected decline is a probable slowdown in the educated workers and labor participation rates, the report said.

The government must improve the ultra-orthodox men's relatively low level skills in maths and reading comprehension in Hebrew language in order to improve the labor productivity, the bank noted.

Over the years, subjects including maths and reading have been removed from the curriculum of ultra-orthodox educational frameworks.

The report also estimated that an additional 4.13 billion U.S. dollars per year will be allocated to infrastructure, including public transportation and communications, to increase GDP by 6 percent.