ECB decisions dragged the euro lower this week

Lebanese Forex Market

The Lebanese Pound (LP) 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 $39.27B by the end of January 2019.

The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 68.72% in December 2017 to 70.62% in December 2018.

Over the week, the Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP, ending the week at €/LBP 1,693.12 compared to last week’s €/LBP 1,706.43.

In turn, the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP added 0.44 % over the week to 118.04 points on the week ending February 15th 2019.

International Forex Market

The Euro underperformed as the European central bank(ECB) is considering Targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTROs) for housing loans , which may lead to further increases in the inflation rate in the long term .

Hence, the currency pair went from last week’s €/USD 1.1320 to €/USD 1.1231.

Commodities

Gold prices increased over the week, going from $1,1314.50/ounce last week to $1,328.45/ounce in the week ending February 08th 2019.

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