The shekel is strengthening today against the dollar and against the euro. In afternoon inter-bank trading the shekel-dollar exchange rate was down 0.38% at NIS 3.401/$ and down 0.04% against the euro at NIS 4.010/€, Trend reports with reference to Globes.
Yesterday, the Bank of Israel set the shekel 0.147% higher from Friday at NIS 3.414/$, and the representative shekel-euro rate was set 0.533% lower at NIS 4.011/€.
The shekel-dollar rate looks set to slip below NIS 3.40/$ for the first time since January 2018. Even the Bank of Israel's policy of purchasing foreign currency to weaken the shekel seems powerless to prevent this. Last week the Bank of Israel reported that its foreign currency reserves climbed to a record $150 billion at the end of July 2020 after it purchased $810 million in foreign currency last month. This brings to nearly $5 billion the amount of foreign currency that the Bank of Israel purchased between May and July.