Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni
Finance Committee chairman Moshe GafniHillel Maeir/TPS

The Knesset Finance Committee on Monday evening approved the state budget for 2019 and it will now be transferred to the final approval of the Knesset plenum in its second and third readings.

The total budget will be 479.6 billion shekels, an increase of 4.3% compared to the 2018 budget, and an increase of 24.9% compared to the 2015 budget.

The projected growth for 2019 will be 3.1%.

The final approval of the budget in the Knesset Finance Committee was reached after all the reservations submitted by the opposition were rejected. The budget discussions began on Monday morning with the active participation of Knesset members, well beyond the 17 committee members who voted for the budget.

A total of one-third of the Knesset members participated in the discussions: 42 Knesset members from all the Knesset factions. The committee chairman, MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), said, "This is a good budget for civil society and for the economy. The budget has very significant additions to health, education and welfare. While this budget does not offer solutions to several issues we wished to address, there are definitely some things like the increase in the health budget, which are important news. "