Bank of Israel lowered the rate to 0.1 percent, an all-time low. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – After a several-month period of keeping interest rates steady at 0.25 percent, the Bank of Israel on Monday lowered the rate to 0.1 percent, the lowest in Israel’s history.

The new interest rate is 0.4 percentage points lower than it was during the height of the global financial crisis in 2009, when Stanley Fischer was at the helm of the bank.

“The decision to reduce the interest rate for March 2015 by 0.15 percentage points to 0.10 percent is consistent with the Bank of Israel’s monetary policy, which is intended to return the inflation rate to within the price stability target of 1 to 3 percent a year over the next 12 months, and to support growth while maintaining financial stability,” the bank said in a statement. “The path of the interest rate in the future depends on developments in the inflation environment, growth in Israel and in the global economy, the monetary policies of major central banks, and developments in the exchange rate of the shekel.”