Stable Demand for the Dollar on the Lebanese Forex Market

Lebanese Forex Market:

Demand for the dollar on the Lebanese forex market steadied as the exchange rate remained at $/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 30th of October, 2015, 15:30 pm Beirut time, the dollar-pegged LP appreciated against the euro as the exchange rate slid by 1.10% from €/LP 1,677.70 to €/LP 1,659.31. As for the Nominal effective exchange Rate (NEER), it increased by a weekly 0.55% and by 13.75% since year-start to 167.57 points.

International Forex Market:

The Dollar was mostly bullish against the Euro throughout the week, the Euro falling by 1.10% from last week’s €/$ 1.1129 to €/$ 1.1007. This mainly came on the back of the Federal Reserve statement on Wednesday that a rate hike in December is still viable.

Commodities:

With a stronger dollar and experts expecting a December rate-hike in the US, gold dropped by 3.03% from $1,178.11/ounce to $1,142.40/ounce. However, the “yellow metal” might recover next week, since the latest U.S. figures illustrated weaker than expected GDP and housing figures.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *