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.Lebanese Forex Market
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 1,729.37 to €/LBP 1,718.25 this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it recorded a 0.89% weekly rise to reach 119.58 points.
International Forex Market
The euro lost noteworthy 1.55% against the dollar this week mainly due to the Turkich forex crisis. In fact, the fall in the Turkish lira over the last few days has rattled global markets. Investors have been pulling money out of the broader emerging markets and found safety in the dollar which strengthened over the turn of events. Moreover the European Central Bank expressed concerns of the Spanish, Italian, and French banks being overexposed to Turkey’s financial system.
Commodities
Gold prices declined by a substantial 2.8% over the week, from $1,210.6/ounce last week to $1,176.9/ounce this week.