Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s finance minister, issued a warning at the end of last week. Despite the growth foreseen in 2010, the year will still bring along some unexpected aftershocks from the credit crunch.

Possibly. It is certainly true that few expect the strong gains of the stock market to continue. Even the most conservative of unit trusts have gained 20% since the mid-summer.

With that noted, this week has again seen a string of good news.

An IMF team is currently in Israel. Despite reservations over the country’s tax reforms, planned for January 2010, the draft report states that:

 Since the beginning of 2008 it appears that Israel has been acquiring safe haven status.

Encouraging. So is the report that for the first time since the onset of the downturn, the current quarter will see more people hired than fired. This optimism is clearly reflected in the hightech sector, which has been of key importance in Israel’s continuous growth.

On a different front, 2 independent agencies have ranked Israel as top of their international list of growing real estate markets. This is significant because the building industry feeds into many other parts of the economy, and thus provides an all-round economic stimulus.