Lebanese Forex Market
Demand for the local currency on the Lebanese forex market steadied, 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. BDL’s foreign assets stood at $41.9B by November 2017, serving as a continuous support to the lira.
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 December 8th, the Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,788.51 last week, to €/LBP 1,774.07, this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it rose slightly by 0.5% over the past week, to close the week at 112.49 points by Dec. 8th.
International Forex Market
The dollar strengthened this week on the back of the optimism spurred by the US tax reform and investors’ renewed expectations that the Federal Reserve may hike the interest rate this 2018.
As such, the Euro-Dollar exchange rate slipped from 1.1864 last week to 1.1768 this week.
Commodities
Gold prices retreated from $1,280.19/ounce last week to $1,249/ounce this week.