The Monetary Committee of the Bank of Israel decided on Monday to keep the interest rate the bank charges commercial concerns at a tenth of a percent until the end of November.
Announcing the decision, outgoing Bank of Israel Governor Karnit Flug said, "The Committee dealt at length with the questions of what conditions will be necessary for it to be possible to begin the process of withdrawing from the very accommodative policy we have adopted in recent years. The Committee reached the conclusion that these conditions are still not fully in place, and therefore decided to keep the interest rate at 0.1 percent. The Committee reiterated that it intends to maintain the accommodative policy as long as necessary in order to continue the entrenchment of the inflation environment within the target range." The bank's research department said the interest rate is expected to rise in 2019.