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.
The Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LBP to end the week at €/LBP 1,662.14 compared to €/LBP 1,666.51 in the week ending Aug. 30. As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it climbed by a weekly 2.11% to stand at 120.34 points.
International Forex Market
The Euro/USD currency pair stood at €/USD 10.1026 in the week ending Aug. 30, down from €/USD 1.1055 in the week ending Aug. 30. In fact, the dollar strengthened this week amid positive signals from Beijing on US-China trade. Moreover, the euro is under pressure waiting for the German retail sales index and Eurozone CPI. In fact, the retail sales index, fell monthly by 1% July, having risen by 3.5% in June which might indicate an economic recession. Furthermore, sterling weakened during this week against both the dollar and euro following decision by Boris Johnson to seek suspension of UK parliament.
Commodities
Accordingly, gold prices added a weekly 1.73% to $1,527.4/ounce in the week ending Aug. 30, 2019.