Israel Bank lowers interest rates amid looming fears of recession

[Ognir]

The Bank of Israel on Monday announced a lowering of November interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point due to fears of a looming recession.

The bank said in a statement the interest rate would be reduced to 3.5 percent. It said that interest rate expectations derived from the capital market show that no further change is expected in the next year.

Israel banking sector has not suffered the same problems faced by its larger counterparts in the U.S. and Europe, but the government is nevertheless concerned a recession will reach Israel.

The move comes as Middle East markets was hit by the global financial crisis earlier in the week. Kuwait's central bank halted trading on Sunday in the shares of the country's Gulf Bank because of high derivatives losses.

Sharp losses in Asian stock markets sent the Tel Aviv bourse farther lower on Monday, with the Maof index of 25 stocks and the Tel Aviv 100 losing some 3 percent each on share volume of NIS 500 million.

The opening of trading was delayed for several minutes after the Maof lost more than 2.5 percent in initial trades.

At 6:30 P.M. Monday, the Bank of Israel is to announce its decision on interest rates. Analysts believe the central bank intends to cut the benchmark rate by 0.25 to 0.5 percent.

In a surprise move two weeks ago, the bank cut the interest rates by 0.5 percent, to a level of 3.75 percent.

The Monday trading came as analysts estimated that early elections would cost the Israel economy around NIS 2 billion.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031880.html


WTF, Jewish bankers are ok, well thank feck for that, maybe we should all send them our money DIRECTLY

[mobes]

Once again as all the central banks around the world talk about lowering their interest rate....Israel is the first to act - now watch, everyone will follow suit!!!