In afternoon futures trading today, the shekel was trading at its weakest against the dollar in three months.
The shekel is weakening today against the dollar and against the euro after the coronavirus cabinet announced a three-stage plan last night to halt the spread of Covid-19, which includes a two-week lockdown. In afternoon inter-bank trading the shekel-dollar exchange rate is up 0.75% at NIS 3.464/$ and up 0.79% against the euro at NIS 4.101/€.
Earlier today, the Bank of Israel set the shekel 0.703% up from Thursday at NIS 3.438/$, and the representative shekel-euro rate was set 0.715% higher at NIS 4.069/€.
On September 1 the shekel reached its strongest against the dollar since July 2008, when the representative rate was set at 3.353/$. But since then, the shekel has weakened almost every day, as the rate of infections in Israel has continued to rise, and it became clear that the government must take action that will hit the economy.
Earlier this week, the Bank of Israel reported that it had bought $2.5 billion in foreign currency last month in its vain attempts to weaken the shekel and keep the rate above NIS 3.40/$. Covid-19 has now succeeded where foreign currency purchases failed.
en.globes.co.il - on September 11, 2020 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020
Shekel Photo: ASAP Creative