The Bank of Israel's foreign exchange reserves increased by $ 2.3 billion

The Bank of Israel's foreign exchange reserves increased by $ 2.3 billion, according to a report on the investment of the Bank of Israel's foreign exchange reserves for 2018. The reserves totaled $ 115.3 billion. The appropriate range of foreign exchange reserves ranges between $ 70 and $ 110 billion, so the range is crossed, but the Bank of Israel emphasizes that the reserves relative to GDP remain stable at 31 percent.
Most of the reserves (63.4%) were invested during the last year in government assets. In recent years, investments in shares by the Bank of Israel since 2012 have gradually increased (with the increase in foreign exchange reserves), and 12.8% of the assets were invested in shares last year, while the remainder was invested in corporate bonds (5.9%), %) And short assets.
The yield on the reserves portfolio was in terms of the numeraire (the basket of currencies in which the bank holds mainly the dollar and the euro) was 0.18%. Compared with previous years, and the Bank of Israel explains it mainly in the decline in the stock markets in the last months of 2018. However, according to Bank of Israel data, the investment in shares contributed 66% of the total surplus return since 2012.