Lebanese Forex Market
Demand for the local currency on the Lebanese forex market slid, with the value of the Lebanese Pound trading within the range of $/LP 1,513 – 1,514 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,513.5 compared to last week’s range of $/LP 1,514 – 1,514. 5 with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.25. Meanwhile, BDL’s foreign assets stood at $41.9B by December 2017.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 65.82% in December 2016 to 67.27% by the end of October 2017.
Over the past week, the Euro appreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,820.45 on January 5th to €/LBP 1,832.09 on January 12, 2018.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it fell from 111.79 points last week to 110.50 points this week.
International Forex Market
Over the week, the euro rose against the dollar following the minutes of European Central Bank (ECB)’s mid-December policy meeting which signaled its preparation to wind down the 2.5-trillion euro stimulus program this year, thereby gradually ending the bank’s massive monetary stimulus program that started since the global financial crisis in 2008.
Moreover, the dollar weakened further with the release of December’s data on U.S. producer prices declining for the first time in nearly 1.5 years.
As such, the Euro-Dollar exchange rate rose from 1.2076 a week ago to 1.2153 this week.
Commodities
Gold prices rose from $1,319.81/ounce last week to $1,331.42/ounce this week.