Lower Mortgage Applications Weaken the Dollar 

 

Lebanese Forex Market

Demand for the local currency on the Lebanese forex market steadied, 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 with BDL’s foreign assets standing at $41.9B by November 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 December 22, the Euro appreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,778.40 last week, to €/LBP 1,786.09, this week.

As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it slightly dropped by 0.12% over the past week, to close the week at 111.80 points.

International Forex Market

The dollar weakened this week as weekly mortgage applications sunk by 4.9%, over the week, reflecting homebuyers’ hesitation to buy. As such, the Euro-Dollar exchange rate rose from 1.1797 last week to 1.1848 this week.

Commodities

Gold prices rose from $1,252.78/ounce last week to $1,268.46/ounce this week.

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