Shekel gains as coalition building begins

Ayalon Group chief strategic Yaniv Pagot: The task of cutting the budget has turned from difficult to very difficult.

23 January 13 09:37, Guy Katzovich

The shekel is strengthening in morning inter-bank trading today, the day after the elections for the 19th Knesset, as coalition building gets underway. The shekel-dollar exchange rate is down 0.25%, compared with Monday's representative rate, at $3.729/$, and the shekel-euro exchange rate is down 0.31% at NIS 4.961/€.

In international markets, the dollar is traded at $1.33/€ against the euro and at ¥88.21/$ against the yen.

Ayalon Group chief strategic Yaniv Pagot said last night, "The task of cutting the budget has in the new political reality turned from difficult to very difficult, and tax hikes have receded into the distance. The day after the elections, it is less than ever who the new finance minister will be, and how the prime minister will be able to please the ideologies of his new coalition partners and get started on approving budgets for the next two years."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 23, 2013

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013