The Bank of Israel reported today that the country's foreign currency reserves fell $204 million to $64.1 billion at the end of last month.

The Bank of Israel said that although it purchased $596 million in foreign currency during August, this was offset by government transfers abroad of $336 million, a downward revaluation of $454 million of the reserves, and private sector transactions totaling $10 million.

In 2009, the Bank of Israel began pursuing an aggressive policy of buying foreign currency in order to temper the strength of the shekel and help exporters. Foreign currency reserves rose from $40.8 billion in February 2009 to a peak of $64.47 billion in April 2010. Since then the reserves have been stable.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 7, 2010

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