Bank of Israel​

ollowing the publication of the preliminary design document for the digital shekel last year, the Bank of Israel continued to deepen its work on the various aspects related to the possible issuance of a digital shekel. Today, the Bank of Israel is publishing a document reviewing progress in the Digital Shekel Project during 2025

Credit in the construction and real estate industry is a significant component of total balance-sheet business credit (about 39 percent) and of total balance-sheet credit to the public (about 21 percent) in respect of activity in Israel.

This box discusses trends in the housing credit market that partly explain the divergent trends between residential credit and developments in the housing market.

In recent years, the Banking Supervision Department has formulated several assistance programs for banking customers dealing with cash flow difficulties due to various crises that the Israeli economy has faced. These crises included the COVID-19 pandemic, the war that broke out on October 7, 2023, and Operations “Rising Lion” and “Roaring Lion” against Iran.

Israel’s foreign exchange reserves at the end of April 2026 stood at $235,745 million, an increase of $6,326 million from their level at the end of the previous month. The level of the reserves relative to GDP was 38.4 percent