Economy of Israel

The economy of Israel is a technologically advanced market economy, including rapidly developing high-tech and service sectors. As of 2011, Israel ranks 17th among 187 world nations on the UN's Human Development Index, which places it in the category of "Very Highly Developed".

The major industrial sectors include metal products, electronic and biomedical equipment, processed foods, chemicals, and transport equipment. Israel diamond industry is one of the world's centers for diamond cutting and polishing. Relatively poor in natural resources, Israel depends on imports of petroleum, coal, food, uncut diamonds and production inputs, though the country's nearly total reliance on energy imports may change with recent discoveries of large natural gas reserves off its coast. Israel is a world leader in software, telecommunication and semiconductors development. The high concentration of high-tech industries in Israel, which are backed by a strong venture capital industry, gave it the nickname "Silicon Wadi", which is considered second in importance only to its Californian counterpart. The country was the destination for Berkshire Hathaway's first investment outside the US when it purchased ISCAR Metalworking, and the first research and development centers outside the USA for companies including Intel and Microsoft. Israel is also a major tourist destination, with 3.45 million foreign tourists visiting in 2010.

In September 2010, Israel was invited to join the OECD. Israel has also signed free trade agreements with the European Union, the United States, the European Free Trade Association, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, Jordan, Egypt, and on 18 December 2007, became the first non-Latin-American country to sign a free trade agreement with the Mercosur trade bloc.