Lebanese Forex Market
Demand for the Lebanese Pound steadied over the past week on the Lebanese forex market with the value of the Lebanese Pound trading within the range of $/LP 1,513.75-1,514.25 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.
Foreign assets (excluding gold) recorded a year to date (y-t-d) upturn of 3.68% to $44.03B by September 2017.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 65.82% in December 2016 to 66.92% by the end of September 2017.
By Friday October 20th, the euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,783.52 on the 13th of October to €/LBP 1,776.49, this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it rose by 0.25% over the past week to stand at 111.91 points.
International Forex Market:
The dollar strengthened during the week on speculation that U.S. President Trump was leaning towards nominating a Federal Reserve head, John Taylor, who would be more inclined to raise interest rates at a faster pace. The Euro/Dollar rate stood at 1.1784 this week compared to 1.1831 last week.
Commodities:
On the back of a stronger dollar, gold prices dropped from $1,282.15/ounce last week to $1,267.82/ounce this week.