ISRAEL - Highest Cost of Living in OECD
Prices in the Jewish state were 38% higher than the OECD average, according to the report released by the Paris-based group.
However, the monthly data for June of this year showed Israel falling to fourth in the cost of living rankings, with Switzerland at No. 1 followed by Iceland and Ireland.
Do Israelis make enough money on average to comfortably afford living in the country? The answer more often than not is, no.
This problem always becomes more apparent in the summer months, when many Israelis vacation abroad, and find, often to their chagrin, that prices in “expensive” European countries or in North America are lower than in the Jewish state. What makes this particularly problematic is that Israelis on average earn less than half of what Western Europeans or Americans earn for doing similar jobs.
This writer has Israeli colleagues and personal acquaintances who fresh from returning from vacations in Western Europe and the United States are seriously thinking of going to live there for a while.
And this is relatively easy for many Israelis to do, as a large percentage of the population holds dual citizenship, and those who don’t are often able to find employment in understaffed fields.
-www.israeltoday.co.il, 28 August 2023
Arno's Commentary
BuyItInIsrael.com writes: “…one of the few neighborhoods in the city where there is still a solid secular majority. In this neighborhood, the average cost of a 4-room apartment is NIS 4.06 million. The Old Katamon neighborhood, considered the stronghold of the national-religious elite, ranks third with an average price of NIS 3.93 million.” In plain words, more than a million dollars. Explanation: a four-room apartment means between 2 and 2.5 bedrooms plus a living room. Apartments range from roughly 850-1,200 square feet.
We think there is another reason for Israel’s high prices and their ability to travel the world; namely, Deuteronomy 15:6: “For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.”
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
