jerusalem feb 7 reuters  the bank of israel said on monday it bought 356 million of foreign currency in january as it tries to contain a strong shekel  despite the purchases israels foreign currency reserves declined by 425 billion last month to 20875 billion or 457 of gross domestic product after reaching a record 213 billion in december the central bank said that partly reflected a revaluation of the reserves that decreased the reserves by 375 billion the israeli currency  among the top performing currencies since the start of 2020  gained another 3 versus the dollar in 2021 even as the central bank bought 30 billion of forex to try to slow its appreciation and allow the economy to adjust bank of israel governor amir yaron said last month the bank would continue to act in the foreign exchange market at its discretion and taking economic activity into account amid a global market selloff the shekel has weakened in the last two weeks and is down 3 so far this year at 32 per dollar  back to its level from the end of 2020 it is also down 4 against the euro so far in 2022 the central bank also indicated that its 85 billion shekel 266 billion quantitative easing programme launched at the outset of the pandemic ended in late 2021 as planned with its final purchase of israeli government bonds made in december it also bought 35 billion shekels worth of corporate bonds in 2020 reporting by steven scheer editing by jon boyle and catherine evans