Lebanese Forex Market
The Lebanese Pound traded within the range of $/LP 1,514-1,514.5 against the dollar with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.25 by the week ending July 7th, at the same range as last week.
The peg continues to be supported by the Central Bank’s solid foreign assets, which reached $44.16 billion in June 2018.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits grew from 65.84% in December 2017 to 68.35% in May 2018.
Over the past week, the Euro rose against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,756.09 to €/LBP 1,761.45 to this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it recorded a 0.40% weekly downtick to reach 114.66points.
International Forex Market
The euro rose against the dollar by a weekly 0.31% to settle at 1.1685 on Friday July 6, 2018 as trade conflicts between the United States and China began on Friday. However, anticipations ahead of the US payrolls data have tamed EUR/USD’s rebound. A positive US jobs report could boost the US Dollar.
Commodities
Gold prices increased this week from $1,250.98/ ounce to $1,253.13/ ounce by the week ending July 6th.