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 66.92% by the end of September 2017.
By Friday October 27th, the euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,776.49 on the 20th of October to €/LBP 1,754.27, this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it rose by 0.92% over the past week to stand at 112.94 points.
International Forex Market:
The Euro depreciated against the dollar as investors are expecting that interest rates will rise at a higher pace in the US compared to Europe. The Euro/Dollar rate stood at 1.1637 this week compared to 1.1784 last week.
Commodities:
On the back of a stronger dollar, gold prices rose from $1,267.82/ounce last week to $1,282.60/ounce this week.