Tel Aviv, May 9 : The Israeli government's 12-month budget deficit increased significantly from 300 million shekels ($82 million) to 4.9 billion shekels in a month, mainly due to the shrinking tax revenues, according to data released by the Finance Ministry. The Israeli government's total tax revenues decreased by a real rate of 8.9 per cent year-on-year in the first four months of 2023, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying. The decrease was mainly due to a steep decline in the collection of real estate taxes by 34.9 per cent year-on-year during January-April, and by 48.9 per cent in April alone compared to April last year, with both figures in real terms. "The frequent increases in the base interest rate by Israel's central bank substantially reduced the number of apartment buyers due to the difficulty of taking out a mortgage," Gad Lior, senior analyst for Yedioth Ahronoth daily newspaper, told Xinhua. "Thus, the number of real estate deals was significantly reduced and accordingly the taxes collected on these transactions have shrunk," he added. /IANS