Rates in Israel unchanged, as expected

Israel is an interesting spot to watch in the reopening. The vaccine has been widely available there for a month and cases are down to 164 per day from a peak near 10,000.

The central bank continues to forecast 6.3% GDP growth under its optimistic scenario.

Economic data is light there but it hasn't shown a reopening boom. In the most-recent report, the unemployment rate rose to 5.1% from 4.6%. For 2022, the forecast has been downgraded to 5.0% from 5.8% to 6.0%).

Some inflation is building but that's likely import-related and up to 1.1% for the year ahead from -0.2% to +0.3%).