"There is no doubt that speculators are celebrating on the backs of manufacturers, and the weapon to fight them is known. We must prevent short-term trading in the shekel-dollar exchange rate and levy a tax on the gains from foreign currency speculation," Motorola Israel president and general manager Elisha Yanay said at a press conference convened by prominent manufacturers today.
The manufacturers called the press conference in response to media reports that the economy is emerging from recession. Yanay said that the Bank of Israel and Ministry of Finance should set a shekel-dollar exchange rate of at least NIS 4.20/$ in order to prevent more layoffs.
The manufacturers said that the declarations about the end of the recession were baseless, and that the Ministry of Finance is not properly dealing with the problem of rising unemployment, which is a function of the strengthening shekel.
Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. chairman Yair Shamir said, "Slogans about us emerging from the recession do not reflect the real situation in manufacturing, which is mostly export-oriented."
Rad Bynet Group president Yehuda Zisapel said that each NIS 0.10 drop in the shekel-dollar exchange rate reduced government revenues by $2 billion. "The only thing that can put us back on the path of growth is employment in high tech. The economy won't collapse if the shekel-dollar exchange rate falls to NIS 3.50/$, but there will be more layoffs, and the situation will be catastrophic. The most important thing is to solve the problem of unemployment." Zisapel also serves as chairman of the Association of Electronics & Software Industries at the Manufacturers Association of Israel.
Manufacturers Association president and chairman of the Economic Organizations Liaison Committee Shraga Brosh today wrote to Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz asking him to urgently convene all the parties that deal with the dollar "in order to formulate effective measures to strengthen the competitiveness of Israeli exports, without which the economy won't resume growth."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 2, 2009
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