The shekel is weakening today against the dollar and against the euro. In late morning inter-bank trading the shekel exchange rate was up 0.33% against the dollar at NIS 3.440/$ and up 0.85% against the euro at NIS 3.747/€.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the representative shekel-dollar rate down 0.233% today at NIS 3.429/$, and the representative shekel-euro rate was set down 0.153% at NIS 3.715/€.
On Monday, the Bank of Israel left the interest rate unchanged at 0.25% despite expectations of a cut. Nevertheless, the Israeli currency reacted to the news by continuing to strengthen.
Now, however, the shekel is losing ground, even against the dollar, which is sharply weaker against the euro. Last week, the dollar was strong in the face of the coronavirus outbreak as investors, fearing the negative economic impact of the emerging epidemic, fled to the safe haven US currency. But this week, even though the virus is spreading at an increasingly alarming rate, investors are cooling on the US dollar in the belief that the US Federal Reserve will cut the interest rate in the second quarter of 2020.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 26, 2020
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