{"id":175366,"date":"2026-06-24T11:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T11:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/175366\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T11:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T11:42:10","slug":"israel-unprepared-for-key-economic-risks-audit-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/175366\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel unprepared for key economic risks, audit warns"},"content":{"rendered":"

State Comptroller <\/a>Matanyahu Englman\u00a0warned on Wednesday that Israel has not properly prepared<\/a> for several economic risks that affect everyday life: whether the country will have enough gas to produce electricity, whether homebuyers are taking on mortgages they can afford, and whether government money is being spent under proper oversight.<\/p>\n

In a package of 12 economic audits, Englman found a repeated pattern: government ministries and regulators had made decisions, announced reforms, or received previous warnings, but had not completed the practical work needed to make those policies function.<\/p>\n

The most serious finding concerned natural gas, which provides about 70% of Israel\u2019s electricity.<\/p>\n

Government must decide where to allocate natural gas<\/p>\n

Israel currently produces gas from three offshore fields, and nearly half of the gas extracted in 2024 was exported to Egypt and Jordan. Exporting gas brings revenue and can strengthen regional ties. But it also means the government must decide how much gas to keep for Israeli homes, businesses, and power stations in the coming decades.<\/p>\n

According to the audit, the government has not yet finalized that policy.<\/p>\n

\"IsraeliIsraeli State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman at a Finance committee meeting, at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on January 6, 2025. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n

A committee examining the issue recommended reserving 440 billion cubic meters of gas for Israel\u2019s domestic needs. But the comptroller found that this was 75 BCM below the committee\u2019s own forecast of how much Israel may need through 2048.<\/p>\n

The gap could widen because the forecast did not fully account for higher electricity use by data centers or more extreme weather, both of which can increase power demand. Under those conditions, the amount recommended for domestic use could last only about 20 years, the report said.<\/p>\n

The problem is not only how much gas Israel has, but whether it has a backup plan.<\/p>\n

Israel has no facility to store natural gas for emergencies. That means that if supply from an offshore field is interrupted, the country has no domestic reserve that can simply be drawn on while the problem is resolved.<\/p>\n

The Energy Ministry has also not adopted a long-term plan explaining what Israel will do when its gas reserves decline or run out, the comptroller found. That plan would need to address whether Israel will import gas, rely more heavily on renewable energy, or use other fuel sources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a need already now to prepare and examine the steps required to ready the energy economy for the day when Israel no longer has natural-gas resources,\u201d Englman said.<\/p>\n

He called on the Energy<\/a> Ministry and the interministerial committee to complete their work, decide how much gas should remain available for Israelis, and advance plans for storage, imports, and future energy sources.<\/p>\n

Another audit examined mortgages, the largest financial commitment for many Israeli households.<\/p>\n

Total mortgage debt in Israel reached about NIS 630 billion in 2025. The average mortgage rose from about NIS 779,000 in 2020 to around NIS 1 million in 2025, while the average monthly repayment on new mortgages increased from NIS 4,200 in 2019 to NIS 5,776 in 2025.<\/p>\n

The comptroller found that a growing share of mortgages fell into the Bank of Israel\u2019s higher-risk category. These are loans in which buyers borrow a large part of the home\u2019s value or in which repayments take up a relatively large share of their income.<\/p>\n

That share rose from 20% in early 2022 to 31% in mid-2025.<\/p>\n

The report also warned about contractor promotions that allow buyers to pay only a small amount when signing for an apartment and delay most of the payment until later. Such offers can make a purchase appear more affordable at first, but buyers may face a much larger problem when they eventually need to secure a full mortgage.<\/p>\n

Englman also found that many borrowers were not comparing enough mortgage offers before signing, despite reforms meant to make bank proposals easier to understand. Mortgage advisers, meanwhile, are not regulated by law, leaving clients exposed to aggressive sales methods, excessive fees, or advice that may not be fully independent.<\/p>\n

\u201cA mortgage is not merely a banking product,\u201d Englman said. \u201cIt is a foundation for the financial stability of Israeli households.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called on the Bank of Israel and the Capital Market Authority to improve oversight, encourage more competition between lenders, and regulate mortgage advisers.<\/p>\n

The audit on government budgeting focused on what happens at the end of the year, when ministries often ask to move money from one part of the budget to another or to add funding for new needs.<\/p>\n

These changes are meant to be reviewed by the Knesset Finance Committee. But Englman found that in December 2024, the committee approved 77 budget-transfer requests worth NIS 30.4 billion. Thirty-one additional requests, worth NIS 4.6b., were submitted before the end of the year but were not discussed or approved in time.<\/p>\n

The comptroller said this left ministries unable to plan properly and, in some cases, resulted in money being spent without an approved budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese findings raise concern about circumventing the law,\u201d Englman said.<\/p>\n

He urged the Finance Ministry to submit budget<\/a> changes earlier in the year, reduce their number and scale, and give the Knesset enough time to meaningfully review them before money is spent.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s truck fleet is continuing to age<\/p>\n

The report also found that Israel\u2019s transition to cleaner transport remains incomplete. Air pollution from vehicles caused an estimated NIS 10.9b. in damage in 2024, including harm to health, the environment, infrastructure, and agriculture.<\/p>\n

The comptroller said Israel\u2019s truck fleet is continuing to age, no new clean-air zones have been created since those established in Haifa and Jerusalem, and electric-car<\/a> infrastructure has not kept pace with the number of vehicles on the road.<\/p>\n

Public charging points could serve only about four-point-nine-percent of Israel\u2019s electric vehicles at the end of 2024, the report found. Rules governing chargers in apartment buildings and the recycling of large electric-car batteries have also not been completed.<\/p>\n

Englman called on the relevant ministries to remove those barriers, expand clean-air zones, and turn existing plans into measurable action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman\u00a0warned on Wednesday that Israel has not properly prepared for several economic risks that affect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[37877,2032,154,37,14506,1419,29010],"class_list":["post-175366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-comptroller-report","tag-electricity","tag-energy","tag-israel","tag-matanyahu-englman","tag-natural-gas","tag-state-comptroller"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116804907645029466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}