The Euro Appreciates against the Dollar as Eurozone Growth Data Exceeded Forecasts

Lebanese Forex Market

Amid the week’s latest positive political developments following the Prime minister’s shock resignation on Nov.4th and the continuous support of BDL’s elevated foreign assets, which stood at $43.48B by October 2017, pressures exerted on the Lebanese pound remained contained this week. This was reflected by demand for the local currency steadying this week on the Lebanese forex market, with the value of the Lebanese Pound trading within the range of $/LP 1,514 – 1,514. 5 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.25 since last week.

The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 65.82% in December 2016 to 66.92% by the end of Sept. 2017.

By Friday November 24th, the euro appreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,774.65, last week, to €/LBP 1,801.26, this week.

As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it slipped by 0.40% over the past week to close the week at 111.94 points by Nov.24th.

International Forex Market:

The dollar weakened this week on the back of Wednesday’s release of the latest FED minutes of meeting, showing a dovish tone, alongside policymakers being concerned about the stubbornly weak US inflation rate. Moreover, the Euro strengthened during the week on better-than-expected results of a series of European business surveys, covering services and manufacturing industries in Europe, which revealed strong recovery and growth in the Eurozone exceeding most growths forecasts.

As such, the Euro-Dollar exchange rate rose from 1.1772, last week, to 1.1949 this week.

Commodities:

Gold prices increased from $1,285.21/ounce last week to $1,288.65/ounce this week.

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