Israeli finance minister Yuval Steinitz warned on Sunday that a European economic crash would be followed by a "5 to 10-year recession" that would also affect the US and Israel.

 

Speaking at the Globes business conference in Tel Aviv, in remarks carried by the Jerusalem Post newspaper, Steinitz said Israel was "ready for a difficult scenario."

 

Steinitz will head a delegation to India on Monday, charged with decreasing Israel’s dependence on Western nations as the market for its exported goods, he said.

 

“One of our main efforts is to push Israeli exports to the rest of the world, because 70 per cent of Israel exports go to the developed world and we are trying to encourage exports to China, India and South America in order not to be dependent only on Western nations,” Steinitz told the conference.

 

He said the plan had been successful thus far, with exports to developing nations rising from 30 per cent to more than 40 per cent in the last two years.