The shekel strengthened today against the dollar and against the euro. Earlier today, the Bank of Israel set the representative shekel-dollar rate 0.359% lower from Monday, at NIS 3.330/$, and the representative shekel-euro rate was set 0.666% lower, at NIS 3.907/€.
In afternoon inter-bank trading after the rate was set the shekel weakened slightly, and was up 0.08% against the dollar at NIS 3.333/$ and up 0.01% against the euro at NIS 3.910/€.
The shekel is trading at its weakest against the dollar since late November with concerns about political instability continuing after last week’s inconclusive election results.
On the other hand, Israel’s economy is now fully open following the success of the Covid-129 vaccine rollout with 65% of the population now vaccinated or having recovered from the virus. New cases of Covid are falling fast with only 356 new cases reported yesterday, down week-on-week from 974 last Monday. There are 423 people seriously ill with Covid in Israel’s hospitals – the lowest figure since December.
The Israeli economy is recovering fast from the three lockdowns over the past year and Leader Capital Markets macroeconomist Yonatan Katz sees growth of 5.3% in 2021, after the Israeli economy shrank by 2.4% in 2020.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on March 30, 2021
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