Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israelis this week to stop selling long-term savings plans and provident funds and to “consider things coolly.”
Soon afterward Thursday, the Bank of Israel announced that it would buy millions of dollars of bonds to help banks raise cash and meet growing public demands to cash in savings plans.
The prime minister also issued a government guarantee to provide a safety net for state bonds.
The government is committed “to take whatever necessary means to ensure that the bonds always enjoy support,” the prime minister told Israel Radio.
The bank said in a statement Thursday that it would buy about $250 million in government bonds.
Netanyahu’s remarks came after Wednesday’s record number of sell orders, which totaled about $250 million.
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