News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The price at the pump for December may not drop as sharply as crude oil prices if the shekel-dollar rate remains high. The government fixes the ceiling price on benzene gasoline at the end of every month. Approximately half of the calculation is based on the price of crude oil and the shekel-dollar rate.

Crude oil now costs around $52 a barrel, more than 20 percent less than at the end of October. However, the dollar has soared to above the four-shekel level for the first time in a year. It now is trading at 3.95.