The International Monetary Fund has raised Israel's per capita gross domestic product in purchasing power parity terms, placing the country at number 18 in the world up from the 21 spot previously.

"The IMF recently changed its forecast of the level of PPP-adjusted per capita GDP in Israel," the Bank of Israel said in a press release Tuesday. "The World Economic Outlook published in April 2007 estimates Israel's PPP-adjusted per capita GDP in 2007, at $31,767, which puts Israel at eighteenth place in the list with the OECD countries."

The central bank added that the per capita GDP showed that Israel was in a similar position to that of several OECD countries, including France ($31,872) and Germany ($32,178), and not very different from the OECD average of $32,098. The US with per capita of $45,000 was ranked in second place. At the end of 2006, the IMF had predicted that Israel's per capita GDP in 2007 would reach $25,250, which would have put Israel in 21st place.

The Bank of Israel explained that the reason for the upward adjustment was a change adjustment in the IMF's PPP exchange rate, which was revised or lowered retroactively as the country's PPP exchange rate in April 2007 (NIS 2.90 to the dollar) was much lower than in September 2006 (NIS 3.64 to the dollar).

According to the updated estimate by the Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel's per capita GDP in 2006 was $27,688, placing it in the 21st position in a descending list as was the case in 2005, when per capita GDP was $26,051.

The estimate of per capita GDP by CBS, which the central bank said had been found to be the most stable of the existing estimates, is calculated using an exchange rate based on purchasing power parity PPP published by the OECD once every three years.