Dollar down over the Week after Yellen’s Cautious Take on Interest Rates

Lebanese Forex Market:

Demand for the Dollar in the Lebanese Forex Market remained unchanged over the past week as the value of the dollar steadied at $/LP 1,513.75-1,514.25 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.

Foreign assets (excluding gold) of the Central Bank inched up by 0.42% by the end of February, to $37.17B. The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits fell from 64.88% in December 2015 to 64.67% in January 2016.

By Friday 1st  of April, 2016, 3:00 pm Beirut time, the euro appreciated against the dollar-pegged LP as the exchange rate increased by 2.18%, over the last week, from €/LP 1,681.16 €/LP 1,717.80. As for the Nominal effective Exchange Rate (NEER), it fell by a weekly 0.78% to 166.23 points, recording a 1.28% year-to-date decrease.

International Forex Market:

Forex markets continue to be highly sensitive to monetary policy announcements by major central banks. The dollar lost ground against the euro as the exchange rate rose from last week’s €/$ 1.1278 to €/$ 1.1395 this week and that came about as the Federal Reserve assumed a cautious approach towards future increases in borrowing costs.

Commodities:

Gold prices, which usually move in opposite directions with the value of the dollar, saw an increase from $1,216.10/ounce last Thursday to $1,231.95/ounce this Thursday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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