Economics
Gaza Conflict Tips Flug in Cutting Interest Rate to 0.5%
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Israel’s central bank, led by Governor Karnit Flug, unexpectedly cut the benchmark interest rate today on concern that the army’s offensive against militants in the Hamas-led Gaza Strip may hurt economic growth.
“It is still too early to tell the economic effects of the security situation, but the effect of security events of similar magnitude in the past decade turned out to be a moderate macroeconomic impact, up to about 0.5 percent of GDP,” the central bank said in its statement announcing the rate decision.