The shekel is weakening today against the dollar and strengthening against the euro. In late morning inter-bank trading, the shekel-dollar exchange rate is up 0.23% against the dollar at NIS 3.673/$ and down 0.27% against the euro at 4.289/€, Globes reports.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel-dollar representative rate down 0.082% at NIS 3.664/$ from Monday's rate and set the shekel-euro rate up 0.359% at 4.300/€.
The dollar is stronger on international forex markets ahead of the US Federal Reserve's monthly announcement tonight and is trading at 16 month highs against the shekel. While another rate hike is not expected this month, investors will be scrutinizing Fed comments which may indicate when and how more rate rises can be expected this year.
Meanwhile, Israel's Ministry of Finance warned earlier this week that second quarter growth slowed to 2-2.5% in the second quarter after being above 4% in the three previous quarters. However, the Ministry of Finance added that the sluggish growth was only a temporary correction due to a sharp fall in car imports after very strong car imports in the first quarter.