The shekel is strengthening today against the dollar and against the euro. In late morning inter-bank trading, the shekel-dollar exchange rate is down 0.27% against the dollar at NIS 3.733/$ and up 0.16% against the euro at 4.257/€.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative rate up 0.727% at NIS 3.743/$ from Tuesday's rate and set the shekel-euro rate down up 0.362% at 4.264/€.
Despite strengthening, the shekel remains within the NIS 3.70-80/$ range at trading levels not seen since February 2017, after trading between NIS 3.60-3.70/$ for the past six months.
On Monday, the Bank of Israel Monetary Committee meets to decide on December's interest rate. Analysts are split on wat will be decided. Leader Capital Markets macroeconomist Yonatan Katz, expects that the committee will raise the interest rate from its historic low of 0.1%, where it has been rooted since March 2015, because Israel's annual inflation rate is finally stabilizing within the government's annual target range of 1%-3%. However, Ofer Klein, head of Harel's economic department does not see the Bank of Israel raising the interest rate because of the disappointing GDP growth figures published earlier this week.
On world forex markets, the dollar is slightly weaker against major currencies, as yesterday's stock market rebounds has given investors a bigger appetite for non-safe haven currencies.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 22, 2018
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