The shekel-dollar rate continued its sudden rise Friday and was quoted at more than 3.605 shekels to the dollar for the first time a year.
The rate had dropped to as low as 3.40 this summer. The Jewish Press noted last year that the rate was likely to go down to at least 3.40 if not 3.30 because of the stable economy and Israel’s new era of an energy exporter of natural gas.
A slowdown in growth, the war in Gaza and the increasingly unstable Middle East set a floor of 3.40 for the rate. One sure sign that the bottom had been reached was almost universal agreement among analysts that the rate hit a resistance area of 3.57 earlier this week and that the rate would turn down.
The Theory of Contrary Opinion again was borne out with the non-stop rise, which so far has capped at 3.60.
Analysts at Bank Igud said that support for a weakening shekel is coming from “the slowdown growth, negative economic influences from the Protective Edge counter terror campaign, and from the need to establish social-economic priorities.”
Bank Leumi also cast doubts that the shekel will weaken.
As everyone jumps into the same camp again, the rise in the shekel-dollar rate may have finished its rise for the time being.