* Israel's GDP fell by 3.6 percent in Q1
* Exports fell 46.3 percent
* Investments in fixed assets down 27.8 percent
(Adds data, background)
TEL AVIV, May 17 (Reuters) - Israel's export-dependent economy entered into a recession in the first quarter of 2009, when it contracted at an annual rate of 3.6 percent, according to preliminary data from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
The fall in the first quarter follows a 0.5 percent drop in gross domestic product in the last quarter of 2008. Economists define two consecutive quarters of economic decline as recession.
The Bank of Israel has forecast a decline of up to 1.5 percent in GDP for all of 2009, while the Finance Ministry has based the state budget for this year on an estimated drop of 1 percent.
Excluding the large public sector, GDP fell by an annual rate of 4.2 percent in the first quarter.
The decline in GDP in particular reflects a drop of 46.3 percent in exports of goods and services as global trade worsened, and of 27.8 percent in investments in fixed assets, on an annual basis.
Exports account for nearly half of Israel's economic activity.
Private consumption shrank by an annual rate of 4.3 percent in the quarter following a 4.9 percent decline in the last quarter of 2008.
In the third quarter of 2008, GDP rose 1.3 percent. (Reporting by Tova Cohen, Editing by Steven Scheer/Will Waterman)