I have had a great holiday. One of those breaks when you can step back and see so much from new angles. And one of those changes that has crept up on us is that 2021 is turning out to be a great year for the economy of the Holy Land.

We now know that Israel has become a “production line” for manufacturing Unicorns. What is less obvious is that “Israeli startups are now punching above their weight in consumer (B2C), gaming and commerce.” In terms of cash, it emerges that “Israeli tech companies raised $17.5 billion in the first nine months of 2021, far above the record $10 billion raised in all of 2020.”. Amazing!

Even the Governor of the Bank of Israel, Amir Yaron, has raised a smile.

Let me say the Israeli economy is vigorous. It showed its strength, its ability to come back from crisis, its agility, in terms of adapting to such a crisis. And recently, the numbers – basically the statistical agency even sort of went back and updated them. And we see even a stronger trend than we had before.

Encouraging to say the least.

One stat that caught my eye was the rebound of Israeli exports in a year still determined by the ripples of corona. They are expected to jump a full 20% comparedto 2020.

Export of services grew by 30% in the first half of 2021, while goods exports rose 18%. Exports of services exceeded exports of goods for the first time ever, accounting for 51.4% of Israel’s total exports, compared with 48.6% for exports of goods, due largely to increased hi-tech service exports.

If that breakthrough had been offered back in January, I would have grabbed at the opportunity. And where to next? That is difficult to say. However, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange did open strongly today, the first day’s trading for the final quarter of the year.