Lebanese Forex Market
The Lebanese Pound steadied within the range of $/LP 1,514 – 1,514.5 against the dollar with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.25.
The peg continues to be supported by the Central Bank’s solid foreign assets, which reached $40.88B by the end of November 2018.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 68.72% in December 2017 to 69.51% in October 2018.
Over the last week, the Euro slightly declined against the dollar-pegged LP, as it decreased from last week’s €/LBP 1,714.33 to €/LBP 1,713.42 this week.
In turn, the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP recorded a 0.16% uptick, during the week, to stand at 118.23 points by December 07 2018.
International Forex Market
On Friday, the Dollar slightly rose against the euro after recording weaknesses against most of the major currencies during the week, the euro/dollar rate fell by 0.05% to 1.1366. In fact, investors have been worried about recent drops in US treasury yields with a flattening yield curve alerting a potential economic slowdown or even a recession. Moreover, the Fed decision on rising interest rate is also awaited.
However, the focus now is on November U.S. non-farm payrolls, unemployment and wage data due to be released later on Friday for info on the performance of the world’s top economy.
Commodities
Gold prices rose over the week from $1,221.28/ounce per ounce last week to $1,239.98/ounce this week recording the highest weekly performance since the end of August 2018.