Following last night's decision by the Bank of Israel to leave the interest rate unchanged at 1.25%, the shekel is trading weaker against the dollar and stronger against the euro.
The shekel-dollar exchange rate is up 0.37% to NIS 3.7357/$, and the shekel-euro exchange rate is down 0.23% to NIS 5.2604/€.
Governor of the Bank of Israel Prof. Stanley Fischer left the interest rate at 1.25% yesterday after two months of raising the rate by 25 basis points each time. The move was in line with consensus expectations by economists. Exceptions were Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital who expected an interest rate hike this month.
Economists generally expect the Bank of Israel to raise interest rates next month, and for the rate to reach about 3% by the end of the year.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.722/$, 0.134% lower than the day before, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 5.2726/€, 0.053% higher than the day before.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 26, 2010
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