The Bank of Israel bought $739 million of foreign currency in December in a bid to contain a surging shekel, Trend reports with reference to Reuters.
Helped by the forex purchases, private sector transfers and a revaluation, Israel's foreign currency reserves grew by $4.26 billion last month to a record $213 billion, or 46.6% of gross domestic product, the central bank said.
The bank also said it bought 1.5 billion shekels ($483 million) of Israeli government bonds last month to bring the total to 85 billion shekels since starting its purchase programme in March 2020.
Its balance of corporate bond purchases held steady at 3.5 billion shekels.