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 71.49% in June 2019. As for the average interbank rate it stood at 8.8% in the week ending August 09 compared to 5.16% the previous week.
The Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LBP to end the week at €/LBP 1,666.51 compared to €/LBP 1,686.31 in the week ending Aug. 9th. As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it climbed by a weekly 0.87% to stand at 119.96 points.
International Forex Market
The Euro/USD currency pair stood at €/USD 1.1055 in the week ending Aug. 23rd, up from €/USD 1.1186 in the week ending Aug. 09th. In fact, the euro weakened over the week on the back of Italy’s prime minister Resignation announced on Tuesday. In contrast, the dollar was partially boosted during this week, as investors anticipated that a statement by FED chairman Powell during Jackson Hole on Friday may soothe the market worries regrading prospects of a recession in the US.
Commodities
Accordingly, gold prices added a weekly 0.30% to $1,501.4/ounce in the week ending Aug. 23, 2019.