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 1,513 – 1,514 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,513.5. Meanwhile, BDL’s foreign assets stood at $41.9B by December 2017.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 65.82% in December 2016 to 68.51% by the end of November 2017.
Over the past week, the Euro appreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,859.89 on January 19 to €/LBP 1,878.93 on January 26, 2018.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it fell from 109.54 points last week to 108.48 points this week.
International Forex Market
During the week, despite the ECB leaving its benchmark interest rate unchanged, the Euro surged as investors are convinced that the central bank will have to tighten its policy due to the strong economic data in the Eurozone. Consequently, the Euro-Dollar exchange rate rose from 1.2338 a week ago to 1.2464 this week.
Commodities
Gold prices rose from $1,332.80/ounce last week to $1,351.28/ounce this week.