{"id":876414,"date":"2026-09-01T17:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/876414\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T17:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:04:17","slug":"bank-of-israel-cuts-interest-rate-to-3-25-in-surprise-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/876414\/","title":{"rendered":"Bank of Israel cuts interest rate to 3.25% in surprise move"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bank of Israel<\/a> on Tuesday cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.25%, surprising most forecasters and marking its fourth rate reduction since the start of 2026.<\/p>\n

The move was also the central bank\u2019s third consecutive rate cut. The prime lending rate will now stand at 4.75%. The Bank of Israel had previously lowered rates by a quarter point in both May and July.<\/p>\n

\"\u05d1\u05e0\u05e7<\/a>\"\u05d1\u05e0\u05e7<\/p>\n

Bank of Israel <\/p>\n

(Photo: Shalev Shalom)<\/p>\n

The main argument in favor of further monetary easing was annual inflation, which currently stands at just 1.5%, its lowest level since May 2021.<\/p>\n

That puts inflation in the lower half of the government\u2019s 1%-3% price stability target range and gives the central bank additional room to reduce borrowing costs.<\/p>\n

The strength of the shekel provided another reason for the cut. A stronger currency lowers the cost of imported goods, including raw materials, consumer products and energy, helping moderate price increases.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the stronger shekel makes conditions more difficult for exporters and Israeli industry, and lower interest rates could provide some relief.<\/p>\n

The decision was nevertheless relatively unexpected because of rising government spending and continued security uncertainty.<\/p>\n

It also came on the same day that gasoline prices jumped to a record NIS 8.25 per liter for 95-octane fuel, a rise expected to feed into the consumer price index.<\/p>\n

That could add to inflationary pressure in the coming months, when price increases are already expected to accelerate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bank of Israel on Tuesday cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.25%,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-876414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}