Stronger Euro on the back of Probable Ease in the Eurozone’s Monetary Stimulus

 

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 June 8th, at the same range as last week.

The peg continues to be supported by the Central Bank’s solid foreign assets, which reached $45.3 billion in May 2018.

The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits grew from 65.84% in December 2017 to 68.25% in February 2018.

Over the past week, the Euro continued to strengthen against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,758.74 to €/LBP 1,771.48 this week.

As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it recorded a drop of 0.33% to end the week at 113.48 points.

International Forex Market

During the week, the US dollar continued to weaken as the euro rose further, following news that the Europe Central Bank (ECB) will ease its monetary stimulus this year. In fact, the ECB’s chief economist Peter Praet the central bank will discuss whether to ease the bond purchases gradually at its June 14 policy meeting. As a result, the euro rose against the dollar as reflected in the 0.70% increase in the euro-dollar rate to 1.1748 this week, compared to 1.1667, last week.

Commodities

Gold prices rose this week from $1,299.01 to $1,299.40 by the week ending June 8.

 

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