Euro’s Strong Streak Ended last week as Dollar Gained Ground

Lebanese Forex Market 

The Lebanese Pound traded within the range of $/LP 1,513.75 -1,514.25 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514 this week compared to $/LP 1,513.75 -1,514.5 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.13 in the previous week. The peg continues to be supported by the high foreign assets at the Central Bank, which reached $42.9 billion in January 2018.

The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 65.82% in 2016 to 68.72% in 2017.

Over the past week, the Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,882.11 last week to €/LBP 1,861.76 this week.

As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it fell from 108.38 points last week to 109.43 points this week.

International Forex Market

During the week, the euro-dollar slid by a weekly 1.08% to 1.2350. Investors turned towards the safety of the dollar on account of the global selloff seen on global markets and on account of bets that the US may witness a minimum of three interest rate hikes in 2018.

Commodities

On account of the stronger dollar, gold prices fell from last week’s $1,335.22/ounce to this week’s $1,311.39/ounce.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *