USD Falls after Expectations of Rate Cut

Lebanese Forex Market

The Lebanese Pound (LP) steadied during the past 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 stood at $36.59B by end-May 2019.

The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits increased slightly from 70.62% in Dec. 2018 to 70.93% in April 2019.

The Euro strengthened against the dollar-pegged LBP, going from €/LBP 1,691.28, last week to €/LBP 1,703.85. In its turn, the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP fell by 0.62% to 118.27 points by the week ending June 21.

International Forex Market

In the week ending June 21 2019, the USD fell against the Euro. This was mainly due to the PMI readings in France and Germany, which exceeded market expectations. Moreover, investors’ growing concerns regarding the US Federal Reserve’s talk on cutting interest rates by 50 basis points in July, weakened the dollar further. As such, the Euro grew by a weekly 0.74% against the US Dollar, as the currency pair went from last week’s €/USD 1.1219 to €/USD 1.1302.  

Commodities

Accordingly, gold prices rose over the week to $1,395.77/ounce by June 21st, compared to $1,349.33/ounce, last week.

 

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