Lebanese Forex Market
The Lebanese Pound (LP) steadied during the past week within the range of $/LP 1,514 – 1,514.5 against the dollar, with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.25.
The peg continues to be supported by the Central Bank’s solid foreign assets, which stood at $37.08B by end-July 2019.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits increased slightly from 70.62% in Dec. 2018 to 71.22% in May 2019.
The Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP, ending the week at €/LBP 1,664.81, compared to last week’s €/LBP 1,676.30. As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it increased by a weekly 0.39% to stand at 119.16 points.
International Forex Market
The Euro/USD currency pair went from last week’s €/USD 1.1120 to €/USD 1.1044 in the week ending Aug. 02nd. The euro continued to weaken on the back of GDP figures released this week, revealing a substantial slowdown in the EU as Q2 growth rates stood at 0.2% compared to 0.4% in Q1. On another note, even though the FED showed signs of monetary easing cutting July rates by 25 bps, the dollar grew over the euro especially in a context of slower global economic growth, including the EU’s.
Commodities
Accordingly, gold prices shot up from $1,420.69/ounce last week to $1,437.64/ounce in the week ending Aug. 02, 2019.