According to Bloomberg article published on November 16, 2022, Israeli inflation quickened faster than forecast in October, almost entirely reversing a recent slowdown and adding pressure on the central bank to hike interest rates again next week.
In the first acceleration since July, consumer prices rose an annual 5.1% from 4.6% in September. The cost of food, clothing, transportation and apartment maintenance saw the fastest increases, according to Israel’s statistics bureau.
The Bank of Israel has been front-loading rate hikes in recent months in a bid to bring price growth back within the government’s 1% to 3% target range. Governor Amir Yaron told the Israeli financial newspaper Globes in a recent interview that policymakers embarked on their longest cycle of monetary tightening in decades to “avert the need to raise the interest rate to a higher point.”
Monthly inflation also slightly exceeded analysts’ expectations with a gain of 0.6% in October.
Alongside “a seasonal increase in clothing and footwear prices,” Israel’s inflation was also affected by the pass-through effects of a weaker shekel, Deutsche Bank AG analyst Fatih Akcelik said in an interview before the data release.
