45% of Israelis cannot make ends meet

Forty-five percent of Israelis over the age of 20 cannot make ends meet, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported Sunday. Its Financial Literacy Survey found that Israelis' knowledge about calculating interest rates, inflation, and investment yields versus risk is below the global average.Eighty percent of respondents said that they compare prices before buying goods, because of the cost of living and rise in prices since the social protest in the summer of 2011. Sixty-two percent of respondents said that they were more savers than spenders.The Financial Literacy Survey was jointly conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics, Bank of Israel, Ministry of Finance, and the National Economics Council in January-May 2012 among a representative sample of 1,200 people over the age of 20. The government uses the survey for setting financial education policy, in line with OECD recommendations.Financial literacy is defined as the ability to read, analyze, understand, and discuss financial and economic matters that affect an individual's welfare. Issues include the ability to assess financial opportunities, the proper use of money, planning for the future on the basis of the present, and responding wisely to economic changes.