'Israel' loses billions in foreign exchange reserves

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli media
7 May 2024 18:46
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The Bank of Israel blames the plunge on the reevaluation of foreign Israeli assets.

The headquarters of the Bank of Israel, the country’s central bank, in occupied al-Quds, occupied Palestine, on August 23, 2022. (AFP)

Israeli foreign exchange reserves have decreased by $5.632 billion from March to April, marking an ongoing trend of downturn in Israeli finances, the Israeli central bank reported.

These reserves currently stand at $208.109 billion, as the decrease was mainly attributed to a revolution of Israeli foreign assets, marked at $3.895 billion. As for the government's sales and purchases of foreign assets, the total added up to a $1.703 billion deficit.

The Israeli central bank has sold a total of $8.5 billion in foreign currency since "Israel" launched its war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, according to the Israeli news website Globes.

Israeli war on Gaza costing billions

Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron confirmed that "Israel’s" increasing military budget spending is endangering the economy as the proportion of debt to gross domestic product skyrocketed 1.4 percentage points to 61.9% at the end of last year.

After submitting the bank’s annual report to the occupation's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yaron said on Sunday, "An assessment by markets that Israel is moving toward an increasing debt route in the medium and long term could lead to an additional increase in yields, devaluation, and inflationary pressures."

The government already agreed to boost spending by 10 billion shekels ($2.7 billion) yearly from 2025, even though some claim it needs to be twice that amount, and the goal of stabilizing the ratio lies at 67% in future years.

The downturn in "Israel's" financial system comes in concurrence with huge blows health to vital economic sectors such as maritime trade, agriculture in the north, and tourism, which are all a direct result of the Israeli genocide of Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.