| 06/08/2021 | 30/07/2021 | %Change | YTD | |
| Euro / LP | 1,777.78 | 1,778.47 | -0.04% | -3.32% |
| Euro / Dollar | 1.1793 | 1.1797 | -0.04% | -3.32% |
| NEER Index | 140.99 | 140.34 | 0.46% | 12.94% |
Lebanese Forex Market
To-date, the Lebanese Pound (LBP) remained steady within the official range of USD/LBP 1,514 to 1,514.5, with a mid- price of USD/LBP 1,514.25 in the week of August 06, 2021.
As we expected in our last forex report, the Lebanese lira has depreciated against the dollar this week and recorded around 20,600LBP/USD in the black market compared to 18,500LBP/USD last week. The political deadlock combined with several socioeconomic crises is adding pressure on the national currency, while the Lebanese people are seeing their purchasing power shrinking aggressively.
In turn, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits increased from 80.37% in December 2020 to 80.50% in May 2021.
As for Euro/LBP currency pair, the Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LBP with the currency pair going from last week €/LBP 1,778.47 to €/LBP 1,777.78 by August 06, 2021. Moreover, the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP slightly increased by 0.46% since 30 July 2021 to stand at 140.99 points on August 06, 2021.
International Forex Market
The Euro/USD depreciated against the dollar from last week €/USD 1.1797 to €/USD 1.1793 by August 06, 2021. In fact, the EU PMI increased from 58.4 in June to 59.8 only in July. This slow economic growth showed that European Economy is not recovering as fast as it was expected by some analyst. On the other hand, the greenback regains its force against the Euro for two solid reasons: first one that some analyst expect the Initial Job Claim will witness an improvement, the second reason is that the federal reserve is aiming to reduce its asset purchase program, which mean they are willing to print fewer dollars and that will certainly increase the value of US dollar.
Commodities
Gold price retreated by 1.45% at the end of this week to $1,797.9/ounce. Of course after the big announcement of the Federal Reserve that the central bank could reduce the asset purchase program, the US dollar has recovered bringing the gold price down.
In addition, Crude oil prices decreased this week by 5.77% to reach $71.7/Barrel amid the rising of Delta variant cases that could harm the international demand for crude oil.