Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke alongside Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday afternoon and congratulated him on the passage of the 2025 State budget by the Knesset earlier today.

"As Prime Minister and Finance Minister, I passed about twenty budgets. But I didn't do one thing - I didn't pass five budgets in two years," Netanyahu told Smotrich.

The Prime Minister added that "our enemies wished the budget would fail because they wanted to see the government fall."

The budget that was passed in its second and third readings today will amount to approximately NIS 619 billion for the year.

The defense budget will amount to approximately 110 billion NIS, the Ministry of Education budget will be approximately 92 billion NIS, and the Ministry of Health budget will be approximately 60 billion NIS. The budget also includes expanding the envelope for reserve service members and reconstruction and development budgets for the northern and southern regions.

Last week, the Knesset plenum approved the state budget frameworks and state budget targets for implementing economic policy for the 2025 budget year, during which it was determined that the deficit ceiling will be 4.9%.