The shekel has again been strengthening today against the dollar and weakening against the euro. In afternoon inter-bank trading, the shekel exchange rate is down 0.76% against the dollar at NIS 3.456/$ and up 0.44% against the euro at NIS 3.506/€.
On Friday, the Bank of Israel set the representative shekel-dollar rate up 0.288% at NIS 3.482/$ and the shekel-euro rate was set 0.325% higher at NIS 3.490/€.
After the US currency's strong gains in recent weeks, the dollar is weaker against the euro on world forex markets today, and weaker against the shekel. The shekel is gaining against the dollar after the strong rise on Wall Street on Friday has resulted in Israeli institutional investors selling foreign currency and buying shekels to hedge their investments.
The US Federal Reserve is expected to hike the interest rate by 0.75% next week for the third successive month, widening the interest rate gap between the dollar and the shekel. However, forex markets have probably already priced in this expected hike.
The shekel has been gradually strengthening this month from NIS 3.526/$ at the start of July.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 18 2022.
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