Israel's interest rate is now the lowest it's ever been. Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel, cut the rate by half a percent to 3.25% on Monday the goal being to stop the drop in the value of the American dollar against the shekel. Israeli manufacturers
complain that the high shekel value is harming Israeli exports.
The dollar dipped to the lowest value against the shekel last week, less than NIS 3.4 to the dollar. At that point Fischer ordered his central bank to start buying dollars to prop up the exchange rate. His interest rate cut had an immediate effect, sending the exchange rate up more than three and a half percent, to NIS 3.52 per dollar. (AP)
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