The Lebanese Pound traded within the range of $/LP 1,513.75 -1,514.25 against the dollar with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514, as it did last week.Lebanese Forex Market
The peg continues to be supported by the Central Bank’s solid foreign assets, which reached $43.4 billion in February 2018.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits grew from 65.84% in December 2017 to 68.44% in January 2018.
Over the past week, the Euro appreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,857.99 to €/LBP 1,858.21 this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it rose from 109.16 points last week to 109.31 points this week.
International Forex Market
Despite Trump expelling 60 Russian diplomats from the United States, the impact on the dollar was minimal this week. In fact, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakova said on Tuesday that Moscow would respond harshly to the U.S. decision, but was still open to strategic stability talks with Washington. As such, the euro slightly increased against the dollar this past week as shown by the marginal 0.01% rise in the euro-dollar from €/$ 1.2325 last week to €/$ 1.2326 this week.
Commodities
Gold prices fell over the past week from $1,342.17/ounce to $1,324.23/ounce this week.