Lebanese Forex Market
Demand for the local currency on the Lebanese forex market remained steady, 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. BDL’s assets stood at $43.48B by October 2017 extending a continuous support to the lira.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 65.82% in December 2016 to 66.92% by the end of Sept. 2017.
By Friday December 1st, the euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,801.26, last week, to €/LBP 1,788.51, this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it slipped by a marginal 0.01% over the past week to close the week at 111.93 points by Dec. 1st .
International Forex Market
The dollar strengthened this week fueled by the positive news received from the progress of the US tax plan following the endorsement of the US Tax reform plans by Senator John McCain.
As such, the Euro-Dollar exchange rate declined from 1.1949, last week, to 1.1864 this week.
Commodities
Gold prices fell from $1,287.83/ounce last week to $1,273.11/ounce this week.