(News Bulletin 247) – The Bank of Israel will intervene to curb the volatility of the shekel, the Israeli currency, after the Hamas terrorist attack against the Jewish state.
The Bank of Israel announced Monday that it was intervening in the foreign exchange market to mitigate the volatility of the Israeli currency, the shekel, in sharp decline following the surprise terrorist attack this weekend by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Around 09:45 GMT Monday, the shekel fell 2.09% against the dollar, to 3.92 shekels per dollar.
“The Bank of Israel announces a program to sell up to 30 billion dollars” in order to “moderate volatility in the shekel exchange rate and provide the liquidity necessary for the proper functioning of the market”, indicated in a press release from the Israeli Monetary Institute.
The latter also says it is setting up “a derivatives exchange mechanism (swap) for up to $15 billion”, again to provide liquidity to the market, and is ready to act with “the available tools” .
The greenback, a safe haven
The Dollar Index, which measures the level of the greenback against a basket of currencies, continued to move near its highest levels of the year, gaining 0.41% to 106.461 points.
“The US dollar strengthened at the start of the week alongside other currencies traditionally considered as safe havens, such as the Swiss franc and the yen, even if the negative impact on the foreign exchange market due to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East Orient this weekend have been relatively modest so far,” said MUFG analyst Lee Hardman.
(With AFP)
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