Israel hikes interest rate to highest level in 17 yrs

Tel Aviv, May 23 Amid inflation, the Bank of Israel (BOI) announced that it was raising its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.75 per cent, the highest level since November 2006.

This is the 10th consecutive increase in the benchmark rate since April 2022, which stood at 0.1 per cent, reports Xinhua news agency.

The central bank said that it is raising rates in order to combat inflation, which has been running above the government's target range of 1 per cent to 3 per cent for several months.

In April 2023, inflation reached 5 per cent.

The BOI said that it expects inflation to continue declining in the coming months, but it will remain above the target range for some time.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor