The shekel is strengthening today against the dollar and against the euro. In afternoon inter-bank trading, the shekel-dollar exchange rate is down 0.36% against the dollar at NIS 3.5601/$ and down 0.42% against the euro at 3.992/€.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative rate up 0.309% at NIS 3.573/$ from Friday's rate, and set the shekel-euro rate down 0.115% at 4.009/€.
The shekel is trading at its strongest levels for 15 months against the dollar and below the key NIS 4/€ rate after the Bank of Israel left the interest rate unchanged yesterday but the Research Department reiterated its aggressive forecast of an interest rate hike this year and two more hikes next year with interest of 1% by the end of 2020. This despite a u-turn by the US Federal Reserve, which has not only scrapped the rate hikes planned for 2019 but has been speaking about rate cuts.
However, in yesterday's press briefing Prof. Yaron said, "Regarding the interest rate path in the forecast, I emphasize that it is not a forecast by the Monetary Committee itself, but by the Department’s economists, who assess that the interest rate will be increased at the end of the third quarter of 2019."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 9, 2019
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2019