Lebanese Forex Market
The Lebanese Pound steadied this week 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 $39.67B by the end of December 2018.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 68.72% in December 2017 to 69.89% in December 2018.
Over the week, the Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP, ending the week at €/LBP 1,709.66 compared to 1,713.38€/LBP last week.
In turn, the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP slightly rose by 0.01 % over the week, to 117.79 points on January 25, 2019.
International Forex Market
The Euro fell behind the dollar during the week. The currency pair went from last week’s €/USD 1.1366 to €/USD 1.1341. The ECB admitted that the growth slowed down during Q3 to stand at 0.2%, compared to 0.4% in Q1 and Q2. President Draghi also indicated that the persistence of weak data will dictate the type of policy action at the next meetings. Hence, the ECB left its monetary policy unchanged.
Commodities
Gold prices slightly dropped over the week, going from $ 1,291/ounce last week to $1,284.36/ounce by the week ending January 25, 2019.