2024-01-31 12:49:11
Walla’s investigation revealed that despite the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip and its economic consequences for Israeli society, price increases were recorded in a number of companies, including Strauss-25%, Shastovich-10%, Vysotsky-10%, Sids-16%, Yachin-6%, Beit Al-Ashetika-15%, Suget-20%, Willipod-15%, Dr. Fisher-10%, Shamir Salads-10%, Achava-8%, Tahina Barakah-9%. Today, Unilever also joined in, announcing increases of about 9%.
Strauss raises prices: chickpeas, olive oil and sweets all the details
A senior economist told Maariv: “They raise because they can raise, what bothers them. There is a matter here of the transportation which has increased very much, at a very sharp rate. By hundreds of percent, the public has a lot of money, it is only in Israel, there are almost no trips, and on the other hand, families have people in the reserves”.
In the meantime, the exchange rate of the dollar continues to weaken against the shekel rate, and following a drop of about 1%, the representative rate is set at around NIS 3.65 per dollar. This is the lowest drop against the shekel in the last six months. This is a trend that continued throughout the last week. The main reason for the weakening is the reports of an imminent ceasefire as part of a deal to release the abductees.
Another factor affecting the strengthening of the shekel are the reports of the rate increases on Wall Street, which encourage institutional entities to sell dollars and convert them into shekels as part of hedging transactions.
What is also seen as a possible cause of the weakening of the dollar, are the estimates that the Chairman of the American Federal Reserve Jerome Powell is expected to announce in the periodic message today about the intention to accelerate the interest rate reductions in the coming months. The announcement will be made in light of the positive macroeconomic data in the American economy.
Such a move, assuming that Israeli Governor Prof. Amir Yaron does not lower interest rates this month because of the large budget deficit, will lead to further weakening of the dollar. The strengthening of the shekel occurs despite the increase in Israel’s risk premium, in view of the concerns about the downgrading of the credit rating.
At this point, the merchants prefer to believe the reports of the transaction being carried out than the denial by Hamas. We will remind you that exactly two months ago, on December 1, 2023, the representative rate stood at NIS 3.74. Since then, the dollar has weakened by 3.7%. In the last week alone, the shekel strengthened by 1.5% against the dollar.
Modi Shafferer, a market strategist at Bank Hapoalim, explained the strengthening of the shekel against the dollar in foreign exchange conversions on the part of the institutions following the rate increases in the USA. The institutional bodies must buy shekels, in order to avoid further increasing the foreign exchange exposure in the investment portfolio.
Despite the strengthening of the shekel, gasoline prices for cars that will come into effect today at midnight, will increase by 16 AZ per liter and the price will reach NIS 7.38. The price is rising, because the average dollar relevant to price determination was relatively high and stood at NIS 3.69. As I recall, the gasoline price subsidy was stopped a month ago. The weakened dollar may stimulate outbound tourism, because it leads to a real decrease in the prices of plane tickets and hotels.
On the other hand, food producers or importers, not only do not lower prices, but have even raised them in the course of the last few days. Among other things, this is the importer of Shastovich products, Strauss dairies, Wilipod, dill salads, as well as fish importers such as salmon. Even the car importers have not yet lowered prices despite the weakness in the market, with the exception of one-off promotions held in December 2023 that made it possible to advance the purchase of 2024 models at 2023 prices.
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