Tel Aviv, March 8 (IANS) Israel's annual budget deficit reached a record of 173.9 billion new shekels ($52 billion), according to a report issued by the Ministry of Finance.

The deficit figure, between March 2020 and February 2021, accounts for 12.4 per cent of Israel's GDP, much higher than the government's target of 3 per cent, Xinhua news agency quoted the report issued on Sunday as saying.

For the first two months of 2021, the Israeli budget deficit reached 11 billion shekels, compared with a surplus of 2.9 billion shekels in the same months last year.

In February alone, the deficit amounted to 10.9 billion shekels, compared with 3.3 billion shekels a year ago.

Since the beginning of 2021, the government revenues hit 62.4 billion shekels, up by 6.2 per cent year on year, while the expenditures totalled 73.4 billion shekels, a sharp an increase of 30.7 per cent.

--IANS ksk/