The Bank of Israel is likely to raise interest rates slightly in the coming months and not make a significant increase since inflation is under control, said deputy governor Andrew Abir on Tuesday.
“We are just moving into the next step of our monetary policy and signaling to the market that we will start the slow, gradual process of adjusting interest rates. And it will probably start in the next couple of months,” he said in an interview with Reuters.
On Monday, the central bank kept its benchmark rate at 0.1 percent, though Abir said this was not going to continue as the economy grew at 8.1 percent in 2021.
According to the report, the increase could come when the bank makes its next decision on April 11, predicting that the rate would reach 1 percent by 2023.
Along those lines, he said: “We think the conditions will be ripe in the next few months to be able to start that process of raising the interest rate.”
