Officially, Israel’s economy is growing at its fastest rate for nearly two years, about 4% per annum. Impressive by most global standards for these days. The question is who is really benefitting for this upsurge?

“The Calcalist” (Economist in English) newspaper has just released a fascinating analysis on changes in the Israeli economy. The starting point is that in the ten years to 2014, GDP per capita has risen 34% (despite the credit crisis). However, real wages have only grown by 5%. So where has the money gone to?

This creeping sense of inequality – a country of two economies – has been seeping into my writings over the past year. And the Calcalist immediately notes the Gini index for measuring differences in financial standings. Whereas Iceland and Norway boast coefficients of around 0.25 and the OECD average is 0.317, Israel stands just better off than the USA with 0.365. Not good.

To give that stat some perspective, it appears that Israelis work on average about 5% more hours per year than counterparts in the OECD. However, it still takes an average Israel around 12 full years of salary payments to buy a flat. Not only is that a number that has grown by 10% in 5 years, it is about the highest in the OECD.

The report refers to a multiple of distortions:

• As with many countries, there is not enough public money for pensions.
• Despite the multiple improvements in the past decade, the Arab (eg, education facilities) and Haredi (eg, social services) population sectors lack resources.
• The food industry, including local agriculture, is heavily protected, to the detriment of the consumer and prices paid in the shops.

Yes, there are positives.

• Israel’s debt to GDP ration is less than 65% and still dropping
• As the central government budget grows, the proportion of spending on the military is projected to keep falling – to around 16.8% by 2018.
• For the past three years, revenue from taxes have consistently beaten targets by about 4%.

So what next? The report comes at a time of year in the Jewish calendar when people are encouraged to reflect. Tomorrow is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a fast day.

The economy is continuing to press ahead. Unfortunately, in parallel, there is growing evidence that the rich are getting richer. Those less well off may still be doing better, but are also being left further behind. The question is what will be the trigger for the suffers  – typically supporters of the government – to scream out at the election polls “no more”?