The Israel Treasury announced today that effective immediately tourists arriving for lengthy stays will receive a 20-percent premium over the official rate for unlimited amounts of foreign currency within three years of arrival. Until the change, such a premium was given only for the amount of $1,500.
The step was one of several changes in liberalization of foreign currency controls. Under another regulation, also effective immediately, Israelis holding foreign currency accounts will be permitted to use $1,200 for travel expenses abroad without controls. This was interpreted to mean that such Israelis will be able to re-sell through banks at the free rate part or all of such sums to persons traveling abroad who do not have foreign currency accounts.
Another change provides that, effective April 1, any person may receive unlimited foreign currency for the import of books and periodicals at a higher exchange rate. At the present time, only book importers receive foreign currency allocations at higher rates for that purpose.
Financial experts pointed out that each such step toward liberalization meant the inclusion of other categories of foreign currency receipts and foreign currency purchases in brackets higher than the basic exchange rate of 1.80 per dollar. Such moves, they added, brought closer the establishment of a single realistic rate of exchange.
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