Lebanese Forex Market:
Demand for the dollar on the Lebanese forex market grew slightly over the past week as the exchange rate went from $/LP 1,508-1,512 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,510 to $/LP 1,510-1,514 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,512.
Foreign assets (excluding gold) of the Central Bank dropped by a monthly 0.89% to reach $38.25B at the end of September 2015. As for the dollarization rate of private sector deposits, it slid from 65.71% in December 2014 to 64.96% by August this year.
By Friday 23rd of October, 2015, 15:30 pm Beirut time, the dollar-pegged LP appreciated against the euro as the exchange rate slid by 2.04% from €/LP 1,712.67 to €/LP 1,677.70.
As for the Nominal effective exchange Rate (NEER), it increased by a weekly 0.38% and by 13.13% since year-start to 166.66 points.
International Forex Market:
The Euro shed last week’s small gains against the dollar, falling by 2.04% from last week’s €/$ 1.1361 to €/$ 1.1129, a two-month low. The fall in the euro came about as the President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi stated that the accommodative monetary policy, consisting of monthly asset purchases of €60B, will be maintained until the end of September 2016 and beyond if necessary. Draghi also noted that the expansionnary monetary stance will prevail until a ” sustained adjustment” is seen in inflation, i.e an inflation rate below but close to 2%.
Commodities:
With a stronger dollar and experts expecting a December rate-hike in the US, gold dropped by 0.16% from $1,179.96/ounce to $1,178.11/ounce.