Lebanese Forex Market
Demand for the Lebanese Pound steadied over the past week on the Lebanese forex market with the value of the Lebanese Pound trading within the range of $/LP 1,513.75-1,514.25 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.
Foreign assets (excluding gold) recorded a year to date (y-t-d) upturn of 3.68% to $44.03B by September 2017.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 65.82% in December 2016 to 66.88% by the end of July 2017.
By Friday October 06th, the euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,777.49 on the 29th of Sept. to €/LBP 1,763.32, this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it rose by 0.67% over the past week to stand at 112.31 points.
International Forex Market:
The Euro depreciated against the dollar with the Euro/Dollar rate standing at 1.1697 this week compared to 1.1791 last week. In fact, the dollar is growing strong on the back of high expectations of an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve in December.
Commodities:
On the back of a stronger dollar, gold prices fell from $1,283.55/ounce last week to $1,267.82/ounce this week.