Amir Yaron
Prof. Amir Yaron, the governor of the Bank of Israel, has guided Israel’s economy through the upheaval of the war that followed the October 7 attack and into its recovery. Tens of thousands of displaced Israelis, hundreds of thousands of reservists, inaccessible agricultural and industrial areas near the borders, limits on foreign workers, and acute geopolitical uncertainty all weighed on growth and swelled the deficit.
To protect price stability, the central bank sold foreign currency to steady the shekel, rolled out a plan adopted by commercial banks to ease the burden of credit and banking fees on households, extended loans to small businesses hurt by the war, and pressed early on for a committee to map Israel’s changing security needs and budget accordingly.
Since the fighting wound down on Israel’s various fronts, the economic outlook has improved considerably. Consumer prices, which climbed faster than the government’s 1%-3% goal for over two years, have eased back into that range, allowing the bank to lower borrowing costs for the first time since 2023 and to bring its key rate down to 3.5% by the middle of 2026. Yaron has also nudged the bank’s growth projections higher as conditions steadied.
More recently, the governor has trained his attention on the state’s finances. He has cautioned that Israel cannot do three things at once – spend more on defense, hold the line on taxes, and shrink its national debt relative to output – and that the government will have to choose. He has urged ministers to build a disciplined budget for 2027, and made the case that honoring the courts and the country’s legal framework matters directly to its economic health.
Michal Abadi-Boiangiu
Michal Abadi-Boiangiu holds one of the most consequential jobs in Israel’s economic administration – and one of the least understood. As accountant-general, she sits at a choke point in how the state spends its money: Almost every significant government expenditure, contract, and procurement decision passes through her office for approval. A minister can announce a policy, but the money does not move without this office. That makes the role less about accounting than about control over public spending in practice.
She returned to the position in January 2026, taking over from Yali Rothenberg at a demanding moment. The office manages Israel’s national debt – how much the state borrows, from whom, and at what cost – and in a year of heavy financing needs and a war-driven deficit, those decisions ripple across the economy. She is also the state’s principal interlocutor with the international credit rating agencies, whose assessments shape Israel’s borrowing costs and signal confidence to foreign investors.
She has moved between senior public and private roles, including as an executive at First International Bank of Israel and, more recently, chair of the EAPC group and a board member of defense manufacturer Rafael. In April 2011, she became the first woman ever appointed accountant-general. Her return for a second term – a rarity for the post – reflects the professional trust she commands, placing a seasoned civil servant at the center of state finances when fiscal discipline is under the most political pressure.