In a new open letter released on Thursday, following the one published at the end of January, experts said that the damage caused by the bill continues amounting.
Signatories include Professors Jacob Frankel, Eitan Shashinsky, Manuel Trachtenberg, Marty Eichenbaum, Eugene Kendall, Nicole Adler, Omer Moab, and Avishai Braverman.
“Even if the markets stabilize in a short term, in a long run there will be adverse consequences for Israel’s economic growth and the quality of life of its citizens”, they stressed. “Unfortunately, the warnings we gave went unheeded and the coalition (in power) continues with the legislative initiative while shamelessly ignoring warnings about the expected damage to the economy,” they wrote in the letter.
“The reform of the judicial system endangers the Israeli economy and may cause a drop in Israel’s credit rating, lead investors to flee and cause a brain drain,” more than 300 experts, including Nobel Prize laureate Eric Maskin, warned in January.
In February, more than 50 leading economists from US universities, including 11 Nobel laureates, criticized the plan.
A few days ago, a survey revealed that 20 percent of companies are considering taking their money out of the country or have already done so, for fear of the consequences of the regulations. According to the survey, almost 60 percent of them reported that their income was affected by fear in the markets and the weakness of the shekel (local currency), which made imports and therefore prices in Israel more expensive.
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