The shekel is weakening today against the dollar and against the euro. In late morning inter-bank trading, the shekel-dollar exchange rate was up 0.46% at NIS 3.484/$ and up 0.53% against the euro at NIS 3.903/€.
On the foreign exchange market yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar rate 0.459% lower from Tuesday at NIS 3.468/$ and the representative shekel-euro rate was set down 0.239%, at NIS 3.882/€.
The shekel has lost ground this morning, reversing its rally in recent days, but overall the dollar has lost its safe haven shine and is trading at its weakest for three months against the shekel and the world's major currencies.
Earlier this week Leader Capital Markets macroeconomist Yonatan Katz observed that Israel's balance of payment figure for the first quarter of 2020 will be published on June 14. In 2019, there was a surplus of 3.6%, which supported a strong shekel. This surplus is likely to be even higher in the first quarter of 2020 with imports down 27.5% and exports down a much more moderate 5.9%. In addition, strengthening capital markets worldwide also supports the strengthening of the shekel.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on June 4, 2020
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