Israeli exports to China up 9.85 pct in Q1 despite COVID-19 pandemic

Israeli exports to China rose by 9.85 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.

From January to March, Israeli exports to China totaled 1.07 billion U.S. dollars, compared to 974 million dollars in the same period in 2019, according to the bureau.

In March, Israeli exports to China totaled 399 million dollars, compared with 370 million dollars last year.

Israeli analysts, however, attribute the export rise to the previous orders made from China in the last months of 2019.

In the coming months the figures may decline because production in Israel has significantly decreased since the first COVID-19 cases were detected in the country in late February, they said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli imports from China fell from 2.07 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2019 to 1.96 billion dollars in the same period in 2020.

However, this decrease is not expected to deepened in the coming months despite the pandemic given a continued Israeli import of food, electronics and medical equipment from China.

The Israeli exports in the first quarter amounted to 13.5 billion dollars, down by 20.6 percent year on year.

In March, Israeli exports fell by 40.8 percent.