The shekel has weakened sharply at the start of this week's trading on the foreign exchange market. After correcting downwards for much of last week, this morning the shekel-dollar rate is up 1.1%, in comparison with Thursday's representative rate, at NIS 3.6842/$, and the shekel-euro rate is up 0.16%, at NIS 4.6137/€.
On world markets, the US dollar has strengthened against the other major currencies, reaching peaks against the euro, the yen, and sterling. The dollar index, which measures the US dollar against a basket of major currencies, recorded a twelfth successive week of rises last week, and is at its highest since April 2010.
Behind the dollar's continued strength are better than expected employment figures released in the US on Friday, showing 248 thousand jobs created there in September, compared with a forecast 215 thousand, and the August unemployment rate recording a fall below 6% for the first time since 2008.
Among local factors weakening the shekel is the Bank of Israel Research Department's estimate that the central bank's interest rate will remain at its historic low of 0.25% until the end of 2015.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 6, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014