The shekel is weakening today against the dollar and strengthening against the euro. In afternoon inter-bank trading, the shekel-dollar exchange rate is up 0.33% against the dollar at NIS 3.643/$ and down 0.48% against the euro at 4.232/€.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative rate down 0.275% at NIS 3.631/$ from Monday's rate and set the shekel-euro rate down 0.323% at 4.252/€.
The dollar is stronger on international forex markets after US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell gave an upbeat assessment of the US economy.
Earlier in the week, the shekel gained as inflation returned to the government's 1%-3% target range after the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.1% in June. This will allow the Bank of Israel to raise the interest rate above the historic low of 0.1%, where it has remained since March 2015.
The Israeli economy remains strong with the Central Bureau of Statistics revising first quarter growth rate estimates up to 4.7% (from 4.5%) on an annualized basis.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 18, 2018
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