Brighter Economic Prospects in the US Lift up the Dollar this Week

Lebanese Forex Market 

The Lebanese Pound traded within the range of $/LP 1,514-1,514.5 against the dollar with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.25 by the week ending April 20th, compared to last week’s range of $/LP 1,513.75 -1,514.25 against the dollar with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.

The peg continues to be supported by the Central Bank’s solid foreign assets, which reached $43.4 billion in March 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 depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,859.5 to €/LBP 1,852.05 this week.

As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it marginally climbed from 109.81 points last week to 109.98 points this week.

International Forex Market

Prospects of a stronger US economy emerged, thereby boosting chances of the FED hiking interest rates in June 2018. As such, the euro depreciated against the dollar during the same period, as reflected in the 0.4% decline in the euro-dollar rate, which moved from €/$ 1.2335 last week to €/$ 1.2286 this week.

Commodities

Gold prices rose over the past week from $1,340.76/ounce to $1,342.21/ounce this week.

 

 

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