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 were further replenished to reach $38.51B by September 2019.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits increased slightly from 70.62% in Dec. 2018 to 72.01% in August 2019.
It’s worthy to note that the average interbank rate stood at 69.66% by October 11 2019, compared to last week’s 59%.
The Euro appreciated against the dollar-pegged LP from €/LBP 1,653.11 last week to €/LBP 1,663.28. As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it increased by 0.08% to stand at 119.16 points.
International Forex Market
The Euro/USD currency pair stood at €/USD 1.1033 by October 11, up from last week’s €/USD 1.0966. The U.S. dollar fell against the Euro as data showed on Thursday U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in September and underlying inflation retreated, supporting expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in October. Moreover, Sterling was the top gainer this week following hopes of a Brexit resolution. In details, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Thursday a Brexit deal could be settled by the end of October to allow the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
Commodities
In turn, international gold prices declined from last week’s $1,506.6/ounce to $1,484.5/ounce to this week.