Shekel loses more ground, nears NIS 3.50/$

Shekel-dollar ASAP Creative
Shekel-dollar ASAP Creative

There are concerns in Israel that the continuing fall in housing prices is a harbinger of a more general economic slowdown.

The shekel continues to weaken today against both the dollar and the euro. In early afternoon inter-bank trading the shekel-dollar exchange rate is up 0.47% against the dollar at NIS 3.495/$ and up 0.25% against the euro at NIS 4.291/€.

Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative rate up 0.317% from Monday's exchange rate at NIS 3.479/$ and set the shekel-euro rate up 0.288% at 4.280/€.

All eyes will be on US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's first interest rate decision tonight. He is expected to raise interest but will it be one of three or four such hikes this year and how hawkish will the tone of his statement be?

At the same time, there are concerns in Israel that the continuing fall in housing prices is a harbinger of a more general economic slowdown. In addition, the 0.1% rise in Israel's Consumer Price Index in February has raised concerns that inflation will not move towards the government's target range of 1%-3% and the Bank of Israel will not be able to raise interest rates later this year.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 21, 2018

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018

Shekel-dollar ASAP Creative
Shekel-dollar ASAP Creative
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