Bank of Israel held its policy rate at 3.25% on Wednesday, pausing after three
consecutive cuts and aligning with economists' forecasts six days ahead of a
decisive election. The central bank upgraded its growth forecast to 5.6% for
this year—about 1 percentage point above the IMF's 4.5% and the strongest among
OECD members. Inflation has fallen faster than expected to 1.6% and the shekel
has weakened versus the USD, easing near-term pressure for further rate cuts
since the last policy move.