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The paper studies the effect of foreign exchange intervention on the level of the exchange rate relying on an instrumental-variable panel approach suited to assess the macroeconomic importance of such effect (i.e., beyond short-term effects found in the literature). We find robust evidence that intervention affects the exchange rate in a meaningful way from a macroeconomic perspective. A purchase of foreign currency of 1 percentage point of GDP causes a depreciation of the nominal and real exchange rates in the ranges of [1.7–2.0] percent and [1.4–1.7] percent, respectively. The effects are found to be persistent and symmetric for FX purchases and sales.