The Times of Israel reported that the Israeli currency, the shekel, fell after a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he pledged to advance a “Judicial Reform Law.”
The shekel tumbled Thursday night after Netanyahu announced the government would move ahead with a key provision of its controversial judicial reform, dampening previous gains that accompanied anticipation of Defense Secretary Yoav Gallan’s expected call to halt the legislation.
Ahead of the press conference that Gallant intended to hold, the shekel rose more than 2% against the US dollar, and Israeli stocks closed higher.
The core index of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange TA-125 rose by 2.1%, the index of companies “blue chips” TA-35 – by 1.8%, the TA-Bank index, which tracks the five largest banks – by 3.6% . .
The rise came after Jewish media reported that Gallant had decided to call for an end to changes to the judiciary, but did not hold a press conference after Netanyahu summoned him.
The prime minister then gave a televised speech promising to push the legislation forward, and the shekel’s value fell again as the exchange rate hit 3.62 shekels to the dollar. Stock markets are already closed for the weekend and will open on Sunday morning.
The shekel is weakening amid growing investor concern that the government is set to push for controversial changes aimed at weakening the judiciary, making it one of the world’s worst-performing major currencies this year.
Senior Treasury officials have warned Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that the reform could stunt Israel’s growth, resulting in a huge loss in tax revenue and causing “extreme damage” to the economy.
This week, the shekel reached 3.7 shekels per dollar in daily trading, the lowest level in four years.
Source: Times of Israel.