Lebanese Forex Market:
Demand for the Dollar in the Lebanese Forex Market stabilized over the past week as the value of the Lebanese Pound stood unchanged against the dollar with a quote of $/LP 1,510.5-1,514.5 and a mid-price of $/LP 1,512.5.
Foreign assets (excluding gold) of the Central Bank fell by a monthly 1.91% to $37.09B at the end of December 2015. As for the dollarization rate of private sector deposits, it slid from 65.71% in December 2014 to 64.57% by November 2015.
By Friday 22nd of January, 2016, 12:30 pm Beirut time, the euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP as the exchange rate decreased by 0.65%, over the last week, from €/LP 1,644.08 to €/LP 1,633.38. As for the Nominal effective exchange Rate (NEER), it increased by a weekly 0.13% to 169.50 points.
International Forex Market:
Draghi’s announcement on Friday weighed on the euro which lost a weekly 0.65% against the dollar and ended the week at €/$ 1.0835. Mario Draghi announced that the monetary policy should be reviewed in March in order to boost the fading economic growth and inflation. This will mostly imply the extension of the quantitative easing program in the coming months.
Commodities:
The price of gold increased from last week’s $1,088.96/ounce to $1,096.40/ounce this week. This rise was shown as the global equity markets crashed during this week.