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 Aug. 10th, at the same range as last week.
The peg continues to be supported by the Central Bank’s solid foreign assets, which reached $44.42 billion in July 2018.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits slightly slid from 68.72% in December 2017 to 68.42% in June 2018.
Over the past week, the Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,745.38 to €/LBP 1,729.37 this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it recorded a 2.07% weekly rise to reach 118.53 points.
International Forex Market
The euro lost a noteworthy 0.92% against the dollar this week. In fact, the Euro’s weekly slump can be linked to the turmoil in Turkey. Wary investors opted to find safety in the dollar which strengthened over the turn of events, while the European Central Bank expressed concerns of the Spanish, Italian, and French banks being overexposed to substantial falls in the value of the Turkish lira.
Commodities
Gold prices declined marginally over the week, from $1,211.6/ounce last week to $1,210.6/ounce this week.