Lebanese Forex Market
The Lebanese Pound (LP) continues to be steady within the official range of $/LP 1,514 – 1,514.5 against the dollar with a mid-price of $/LP 1,514.25 by the week ending Feb. 28, 2020.
The peg also continues to be supported by the Central Bank’s solid foreign assets, which settled at $36.66B by January 2020.
In turn, the dollarization ratio of private sector deposits surged to 76.02% in December 2019, up from last year’s 70.62% during the same period.
Across the week, the Euro appreciated vis-à-vis the dollar-pegged LP as the currency pair went from last week’s €/LBP 1,633.84 to this week’s €/LBP 1,654.24. In turn, the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LP retreated by a marginal 0.44% to stand at 119.63 points by the week ending Feb.28, 2020.
International Forex Market
The Euro/USD currency pair went from last week’s €/USD 1.0838 to €/USD 1.0973 by Feb 28, 2020. In fact, the Euro strengthened marginally over the week. In details, The US Dollar (USD) saw broad losses during the week that helped the Euro to US Dollar (EUR/USD) exchange rate to see significant gains. However, as investors rush away from currencies correlated to risk and trade today, the US Dollar is steadying.
Even despite the market’s mixed Eurozone outlook, the Euro has been among this week’s best performing major currencies. As the Pound (GBP) plummeted on revived Brexit fears and concerns over Britain’s economic performance, and the US Dollar (USD) was hit by coronavirus jitters, the Euro benefitted from losses in both rivals.
Commodities
Gold continued its uptrend amid concerns over the spread of the new coronavirus and how it’s impacting global growth, international prices of gold advanced going from last week’s $1,576.1/ounce to this week’s $1,644.4/ounce.