Lebanese Lira reached above 25,000 LBP/USD at an All time low

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 November 26, 2021.

The Lebanese lira has continued its bad performance in the parallel market and recorded around LBP/USD 25,000 at the end of this week. The depreciation of national currency is affecting directly the purchasing power of Lebanese people while more than 80% of resident population lives below the poverty lines. All this is happen, while we still can’t see the light at the end of this long tunnel amid the high uncertainty and the political conflicts in the region.

In turn, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits decreased from 80.11% in August 2021to 80.05% in September 2021.

As for Euro/LBP currency pair, the Euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LBP with the currency pair going from last week €/LBP 1,700.07 to €/LBP 1697.78 by November 26, 2021. Moreover, the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP slightly increased weekly by 0.15% to stand at 150.06 points on November 26, 2021.

International Forex Market

The Euro/USD depreciated against the dollar from last week €/USD 1.1277 to €/USD 1.1262 by November 26, 2021. In fact, the new US jobs claims were at 52-year low, while the coronavirus cases are surging again in Germany putting a high pressure on Euro.

Commodities

Gold price slightly decreased by 3.07% at the end of this week to $1,804.9/ounce. The new concerns about the new variant of corona virus combined by the increase of the US inflation rate could increase the price of gold in the upcoming weeks.

In addition, Crude oil prices decreased this week by 1.13% and recorded $77.84/Barrel. We expect a further deterioration in the price of crude oil amid concerns about the new variant of corona virus that might threat the global demand in addition to the releasing of US oil reserves.