The shekel is strengthening today against the dollar and weakening against the euro. In late morning inter-bank trading, the shekel-dollar exchange rate is down 0.58% against the dollar at NIS 3.626/$ and up 0.12% against the euro at 4.250/€.
On Friday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative rate down 0.055% at NIS 3.647/$ from Thursday's rate and set the shekel-euro rate up 0.224% at 4.245/€.
The dollar is weaker on international forex markets after President Donald Trump complained about the strength of the US currency. He blamed the US Federal Reserve for its tight monetary policies and manipulative forex trading by the EU and China.
Last 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 last week 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 23, 2018
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