The shekel is weakening today against the dollar and against the euro. In late morning inter-bank trading, the shekel-dollar exchange rate is up 0.46% against the dollar at NIS 3.6096/$ and up 0.22% against the euro at 4.0493/€.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative rate up 0.111% at NIS 3.593/$ from last Thursday's rate and set the shekel-euro rate up 0.020% at 4.040/€.
The dollar is stronger on world forex markets, which reopened yesterday after the Easter holiday, with the dollar index against the world's major currencies at its highest since June 2017. Wall Street is at an all-time high and the US GDP figures for the first quarter of 2019 will be published on Friday.
In Israel, forex trading remains thin during the intermediary days of the Passover holiday. But while the shekel is weaker for the time being, the sharp rise in oil prices as the US tightens sanctions on importing oil from Iran, will mean rising inflation in Israel. This in turn will bring the next interest rate hike sooner rather than later.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 24, 2019
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