Shekel continues gains despite stronger dollar worldwide
OECD cuts Israel's growth forecast
OECD cuts Israel's growth forecast
With Israel's strong macroeconomic indicators, the dollar was never going to be able to push the shekel above the NIS 3.60-3.65/$ range, market sources in Tel Aviv believe.
The shekel is strengthening today against the dollar and against the euro. In early afternoon inter-bank trading, the shekel-dollar exchange rate is down 0.52% against the dollar at NIS 3.620/$ and down 0.82% against the euro at 4.172/€.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative rate down 0.137% from Tuesday's exchange rate at NIS 3.639/$ and set the shekel-euro rate down 0.076% at 4.206/€.
The shekel is stronger against the dollar for the second successive day even though the dollar is buoyant on world markets and has moved back to 11-month highs against the basket of the world's major currencies. With annual GDP growth of over 4% and generally strong macroeconomic data, the dollar in its recent rally was never going to be able to push the Israeli currency much above the NIS 3.60-3.65/$ range, market sources in Tel Aviv believe.
There is also growing confidence that the Bank of Israel will be able to raise interest rates above the historic low of 0.1% in the final quarter of the year, now that inflation has risen to 0.8% over the past 12 months - very close to the government's annual target range of 1%-3%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 21, 2018
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018
Shekel-dollar ASAP Creative