Lebanese Forex Market
Demand for the dollar on the Lebanese forex market increased over the past week, going from $/LP 1,514 within the range $/LP 1,513.75 – 1,514.25 on January13th to a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.25 within the range $/LP 1,514 – 1,514.50 on Friday.
Foreign assets (excluding gold) at the Central Bank increased 9.75% since the beginning of the year to $40.71B by December 2016, boosted by the June 2016 Swap Operation coordinated by BDL with the MoF and the Lebanese commercial banks. The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits lightly hiked from 64.88% in Dec.2015 to 65.30% in Nov.2016.
By Friday January 20, 2017, the euro marginally depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP over the last two weeks, going from €/LBP 1,604.73 on January 13 to €/LBP 1,604.58 on January 20. As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it decreased by 0.03% over the past week to stand at 118.44 points.
International Forex Market:
The dollar witnessed no change over the past week as investors remained cautious of Trump’s inauguration on January 20. Hence, the Euro marginally fell from €/$ 1.0645 in the last week to €/$1.0644 this week.
Commodities:
Over the week, gold prices increased from $1,197.7/ounce on January 13 to $1,199.40/ounce this week.