With stock markets rising, the dollar lost ground against major currencies. In Israel, foreign currency trading is in line with that trend and the shekel is stronger against the dollar.
The shekel-dollar exchange rate is down 0.27% to NIS 3.7338/$, and the shekel-euro exchange rate is up 0.63% to NIS 5.1375/€.
Wall Street closed higher yesterday, with the S&P 500 up 1.8%.
The shekel-dollar exchange rate continues to hover in the NIS 3.70-3.80/$ range, where it has traded since August. Yesterday, the Central Bureau of Statistics released first figures showing that Israel's Gross Domestic Product rose 4.4% in annual terms, higher than economists' expectations of around 3.5%. Despite the stronger growth, expectations are that the Bank of Israel will leave the interest rate unchanged at the end of this month, following January's sharp drop of 0.7% in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative exchange rate at NIS 3.744/$, 0.213% lower than the day before, and set the shekel-euro representative exchange rate at NIS 5.1055/€, 0.1% lower than the day before.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 17, 2010
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