A Look at Money Matters in Eretz Yisrael

The shekel-dollar exchange rate jumped on Tuesday. The Bank of Israel shows the day�s closing rate at 4.350/$ and 5.2231/�.

**Camtek Ltd announces an additional 68 employees, representing 14% of its workforce, is being laid off after dismissing 40 employees in November 2008.

**Layoffs in January 2009 have reached a record-high in Eretz Yisrael, the government�s employment service announced, topping the previous record of December 2008 when 17,449 people lost their jobs. Last month, 19,719 lost their jobs.

**Demands for laborers dropped 12% in January 2009 as compared to one year earlier.

**Plasson Industries, controlled by Kibbutz Magen Michael has laid off 70 of its 1,500 global workforce. Most of the layoffs however are among kibbutz members and local salaried employees.

**Neviot�s stock took a dive after it announced on Monday it was temporarily suspending production after detecting a bacterial contamination in the water source. Interestingly, Mei Eden, another water company which halted production for the same reason, held steady.

**Addressing the President�s Conference in Jerusalem, Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer stated interest rates may drop to zero.

**The Central Bureau of Statistics reports a third consecutive month of negative inflation, reporting the Consumer Price Index (CPI) fell by 0.5% in January.

(Yechiel Spira � YWN Israel)