The shekel is again weakening sharply today against the dollar and against the euro. In afternoon inter-bank trading, the shekel-dollar exchange rate was up 0.88% against the dollar at NIS 3.283/$ and the shekel-euro rate was up 0.47% at NIS 3.939/€.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the representative shekel-dollar rate 0.681% higher from Tuesday, at NIS 3.254/$, and the representative shekel-euro rate was set 1.35% higher, at NIS 3.990/€.
Over the past week, since the unexpected announcement by the Bank of Israel that it will buy $30 billion in foreign currency in 2021, the shekel has depreciated over 5% against the dollar and against the euro. Just before the announcement, "to provide the market with certainty regarding the Bank’s commitment to dealing with the recent sharp appreciation," the Bank of Israel had set the shekel-dollar representative rate at NIS 3.1160/$, and the representative shekel-euro rate was set at NIS 3.7874/€.
With major amounts of shekel being sold in exchange for foreign currency over the past week, it is yet unclear whether the Bank of Israel itself was actually intervening in the market to sell the Israeli currency.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 21, 2021
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