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 Sept. 28th, unchanged from last week’s range.
The peg continues to be supported by the Central Bank’s solid foreign assets, which reached $43.56 billion (B) in August 2018.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits slightly slid from 68.72% in December 2017 to 68.51% in July 2018.
Over the past week, the Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,769.87 last week to €/LBP 1,745.81 this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it added a weekly 0.18% to stand at 118.43 points.
International Forex Market
The euro weakened by 1.36% against the dollar, closing the week ending Sept 28th at 1.1581.
The Euro’s depreciation came largely on the back of Italy passing the new 2019 budget targets Thursday Sept. 27th. The budget was described as “defying” the EU criteria, and the concerns of fellow EU states over Italy’s large debt grew, which weakened investors’ confidence in the single currency this week.
Commodities
Gold prices declined over the week from $1,193.0 per ounce last week to $1,187.48/ounce this week.