Shekel-dollar rate reaches past NIS 4/$

The shekel-dollar exchange rate has returned to the NIS 4/$ level, with the current rate up 0.78% to NIS 4.011/4.

The shekel-dollar rate reached NIS 4/$ on Monday, the first time in two months it had reached that high. The representative rate was set above that level only once in 2008, on November 21.

Yesterday, online foreign exchange firm Prico CEO Vered Yitzchaki told "Globes" that the dollar's weakness against the shekel is part of global weakness in the US currency, and that this week's interest rate cut did not impact the local foreign currency market as it was essentially already priced in. In the longer term, Yitzchaki sees the exchange rate falling to the NIS 3.2-3.3/$ range.

In the short term, if the exchange rate reaches past the NIS 4.04/$ level, it can move to NIS 4.1/$.

Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the representative shekel-dollar exchange rate at NIS 3.98/$, and the representative shekel-euro exchange rate at NIS 5.252/�.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 28, 2009