Statistics form the Palestinian Ministry of Finance and Planning shows that the net lending in the first half of this year has fell to 17 percent in comparison with the same period of 2017.

The data, according to the Palestine Economic Portal, shows that net lending hit 444.3 million NIS , while it used to be 546.5 million shekels in 2017.

The Ministry of Finance and Planning added that a reduction was made in order to reduce the debts of local authorities and electricity companies.

Net lending refers to amounts deducted by Israel from tax clearance revenues for debt settlement of Palestinian municipal, water and electricity debts to Israeli companies.

The Finance Ministry expects that Israel will deduct 900 million shekels from the Palestinian tax clearance revenues, compared to 950 million dollars last year.