Equity performance in the recent past has been unusually strong by developed-market standards. In 2025 the TA-35 rose 51.6% and the TA-125 rose 52.0%, against 16.4% for the S&P 500 and 20.4% for the NASDAQ Composite. Between January 1, 2026 and May 31, 2026 the TA-35 added 20.6% and the TA-125 added 18.7%, compared with 10.7% and 16.1% for the two American benchmarks.
Trading and settlement are in New Israeli Shekels. Monetary policy sits with the Bank of Israel under the Bank of Israel Law, which took effect on June 1, 2010, and the statutory objective is price stability, defined by the Government since 2003 as annual inflation of 1% to 3%. Rates have been set by a Monetary Committee since October 2011, made up of three Bank of Israel members and three public representatives. The Bank may not fund the budget deficit or buy government bonds in the primary market, aside from temporary cash-flow advances capped at NIS 10 billion outstanding and 150 days a year. It absorbs liquidity partly through Makam, short-term bills formally a government liability but issued by the central bank, traded on the secondary market and open to the public. Inflation was 3.0% in 2025, GDP grew 2.9%, and the shekel appreciated about 14% against the dollar. Foreign currency reserves stood at $229.5 billion at the end of 2025, equal to 37% of GDP.
Government debt is the deeper of the two markets. Domestic government debt was NIS 1,416.2 billion at December 31, 2025, split between NIS 868.2 billion tradable and NIS 348.4 billion non-tradable, roughly 8% more than a year earlier; external debt was NIS 199.7 billion. The general government debt-to-GDP ratio reached 68.4% in 2025 with a budget deficit of 4.7% of GDP. Israel also issues in dollars: in January 2026 it sold $2.25 billion of 4.500% bonds due 2031, $2.0 billion of 5.000% bonds due 2036 and $1.75 billion of 5.875% bonds due 2056. The non-tradable stock is shrinking because designated CPI-linked bonds for pension funds, which those funds once had to hold against 30% of their portfolios, were replaced by an Ensuring Yield mechanism from October 1, 2022, with no new designated bonds issued since 2023.
The shekel itself is a modest currency in global terms: Israel accounted for $8 billion of average daily foreign exchange turnover in April 2022, or 0.1% of the world total, in the BIS triennial survey. GSN covers Israel through TASE issuer disclosures, Israel Securities Authority rulemaking and the sovereign’s own filings, with technology, banking, defence and pharmaceuticals the sectors that generate most of the news flow.