Amid rising coronavirus infections in Israel, there is increased concern that Israel may go into lockdown over the Jewish holidays.
The shekel is weakening today against the dollar and against the euro. In afternoon inter-bank trading the shekel-dollar exchange rate is up 0.41% at NIS 3.406/$ and up 0.17% against the euro at NIS 4.006/€.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel 0.414% up from Monday at NIS 3.392/$, and the representative shekel-euro rate was set 0.125% higher at NIS 3.999/€.
Having reached its strongest against the dollar since July 2008 last week when the representative rate was set at 3.353/$, the shekel has now weakened every day for the past week. In part this is due to growing alarm in Israel at the rising number of new Covid-19 infections and increasing concern that the entire country may go into lockdown for the upcoming Jewish holidays. In part this is also due to the tech share sell-off on world stock markets, which is causing many investors to flee to the safe haven of the dollar, which is strengthening on world forex markets after several months of declines.
The shekel has now weakened back above the important psychological threshold of NIS 3.40/$. Earlier this week, the Bank of Israel reported that it had bought $2.5 billion in foreign currency last month in its failed attempts to keep the weaken the shekel and keep the rate above NIS 3.40/$.
en.globes.co.il - on September 9, 2020 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020
Shekel Photo: ASAP Creative