The Central Bank of Israel said on Tuesday that it sold $8.2 billion in foreign exchange in October, causing reserves to fall to $191.2 billion.
The Central Bank launched a $30 billion program to sell foreign exchange, with the start of the war on Hamas in Gaza a month ago, to prevent a sharp deterioration in the shekel exchange rate.
This is the first time ever that foreign exchange has been sold.
Reserves in September were $198.5 billion.
The Central Bank had reduced growth expectations for the country's economy to 2.3 percent this year, compared to 3 percent in previous expectations.
The Israeli Central Bank expected, in a statement, that the country’s gross domestic product would grow by 2.8 percent during 2024.
The Central Bank of Israel had kept interest rates unchanged at 4.75 percent, while escalation operations continued in Gaza, amid a decline in shekel prices near its lowest levels ever.
The bank stated in a statement that the Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep the interest rate unchanged, despite Israel’s involvement in the operations resulting from the escalation in Gaza for more than two weeks.
