JERUSALEM, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israel's deficit for the last 12 months stood at 3.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), highest since 2012, with the target for 2018 at only 2.9 percent, the state's Ministry of Finance published on Monday.

The gap between the deficit target and the actual deficit is about 9 billion new shekels (2.44 billion U.S. dollars). This is an even higher deviation than expected by the ministry, whose members held a discussion on the matter and expressed concern about the situation.

The ministry explained the high deficit recorded by the fact that the last 12 months also include December 2017, which had relatively low revenues due to a one-time provision of 4 billion new shekels to the Property Tax Fund due to high revenue than expected that year.

In real figures, state revenues fell by 8 percent from October 2017, a 12-percent drop in indirect taxes and a 5-percent decrease in direct income.

The rate of growth in tax revenues was only 2 percent this year, compared with an average of 6 percent in recent years.

In September, the Ministry of Finance noted that one of the reasons for the high deficit was the postponement of tax collection following the Jewish holidays for October, but now that the additional collection is weighted, the deficit is still exceptional.

Israel's government expenditure also continued to exceed frameworks and rose by 7.2 percent in 2018, compared with the same period last year.

The Ministry of Finance noted that the rate of increase in ministries expenses is expected to moderate toward the end of 2018.