According to the Israeli Times on October 23, due to the continued weakness of the Israeli currency, the New Shekel, and the economic burden of the new round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict on local households and businesses, the Bank of Israel has decided to maintain current interest rates and lowered its economic growth forecast for 2023. The decision of the Bank of Israel to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 4.75% is in line with the predictions of most economists. The Bank of Israel predicts that the country's economy will grow by 2.3% in 2023 and 2.8% in 2024. This is lower than the Bank of Israel's forecast of 3% economic growth for this year and the next two years released last month. The central bank stated in a statement that the conflict has had various economic impacts on both real economic activity and financial markets. In addition, the central bank predicts that the government's fiscal deficit will increase to 2.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2023 and 3.5% of GDP by 2024.