Euro Strengthens as Eurosceptic Le Pen Loses to Macron and Trump Releases ‘Vague’ Tax Reforms   

Lebanese Forex Market

Demand for the dollar remained stable on the Lebanese Forex market with the value of the Lebanese Pound trading within the range of $/LP 1,514 – 1,514. 5 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.25 since last week.

Foreign assets (excluding gold) at the Central Bank reached $39.76B in mid-April 2017 compared to $36.31B in the same period last year.

The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 64.7% in February 2016 to 65.9% in February 2017.

By Friday April 28th, 2017, the euro appreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,616.04 on April 21st to €/LBP 1,646.58, this week.

As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it declined by 0.92% over the past week to stand at 115.57 points.

International Forex Market:

The euro/dollar rose by 1.89% to €/$ 1.0923 over the mentioned period. The euro strengthened following the wave of relief in the market following Emmanuel Macron’s victory against anti-euro nationalist Marine Le Pen in round 1 of France’s presidential elections on Apr.23rd. Investors’ agitation was further eased this week following the ECB’s (Draghi) statement reassuring markets of an increasingly solid Eurozone recovery.

Commodities:

Gold prices fell from $1,283.15/ounce to $1,266.44/ounce this week, as investors sought riskier assets.  

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