New Israeli gov't stats show drop in households incomes

The average Israeli household's income has dropped, according to new Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) figures. Gross household income for 2011 -- the latest period surveyed -- dropped by 1.7 percent, according to the Household Expenditure Survey, with the monthly consumption expenditure per household standing at NIS 13,967 (3,618 U.S. dollars). The data is based on a survey conducted among 6,051 households, with an 88 percent response rate. The sharpest decline was recorded among households headed by the self-employed, with averaged recorded income falling to NIS 19, 434 (5,034 dollars), a four-percent drop from 2010's numbers. The survey also found that the income gap between the rich and poor in 2011 widened more than in any other western developed countries, according to The Jerusalem Post. The CBS has conducted the survey intermittently since the 1950s, and kept annual statistics since 1997. In July 2011, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in summer-long nationwide tent protests against sharply rising costs of living, including food and education, poor incomes and salaries, and steep housing costs, particularly for university- age students and the newly-married.