The shekel has strengthened against the dollar and euro in morning inter-bank trading today. The shekel-dollar exchange rate has fallen 0.30%, compared with yesterday's representative rate, to NIS 3.679/$ and the shekel-euro exchange rate has fallen 0.38% to NIS 4.757/€.
In international markets, the dollar is traded at $1.29/€ against the euro and at ¥95.44/$ against the yen.
Agio Risk Management and Financial Decisions CEO Gideon Ben-Nun said, "The shekel will continue to strengthen in view of the positive interest rate differential, and so long as the Bank of Israel postpones intervening in the economy. In view of the slowdown seen in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the continued contraction in Europe, we reiterate shekel-dollar trading band at NIS 3.70-3.85/$ in the short and medium term."
Foreign currency investors are encouraged by the formation of the new government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which lifts some of the fiscal uncertainty that prevailed latterly. Calculations indicate that the smaller new government will save NIS 40-100 million a year. In addition, new Minister of Finance Yair Lapid is considering abolishing the biennial budget instituted by his predecessor, Yuval Steinitz.
According to various well-being indices, the level of well-being in Israel has increased steadily during the 2000s, but the improvement in well-being is smaller than the growth in GDP per capita during the same period, stated the Bank of Israel in a report yesterday. It adds that Human Development Index in Israel is higher than the OECD average, even though Israel's GDP is below the OECD average, because Israel's life expectancy and the level of education are relatively high. However, Environmental Performance Index in Israel has been falling steadily since 2007, after rising slightly earlier in the decade.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 19, 2013
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