The Bank of Israel said it purchased $800 million in the foreign exchange market in May. This is the first officially confirmed purchase of foreign currency by the regulator since 2022, according to the economic publication The Marker.
According to the Bank of Israel, the volume of foreign exchange reserves reached $238.7 billion at the end of May 2026, an increase of almost $3 billion compared to the previous month. About $800 million of this amount came from foreign exchange interventions, while the bulk of the increase was due to the revaluation of foreign currency assets.
At the same time, the increase in reserves was partially offset by government foreign exchange transactions amounting to approximately $720 million.
This is the Bank of Israel’s first intervention in the foreign exchange market since the end of its foreign exchange purchase program in 2022. During the war in 2023, the state bank, on the contrary, sold dollars and bought shekels to support the national currency.
The Bank of Israel refused to clarify whether the $800 million purchase was made at a time or carried out in small volumes over the course of a month.