Euro Down with no Pointers towards Monetary Tightening by the ECB
Lebanese Forex Market
Demand for the dollar on the Lebanese forex market stabilized at $/LP 1,514.25 within the range $/LP 1,514 – 1,514.5.
Foreign assets (excluding gold) at the Central Bank reached $41.40B at the end of February 2017 compared to $37.17B in the same period last year.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 64.67% in January 2016 to 65.84% in January 2017.
By Friday March 31st, 2017, the euro depreciated against the dollar-pegged LP going from €/LBP 1,629.31 on March 24th to €/LBP 1,612.12, this week.
As for the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP, it increased by 0.49% over the past week to stand at 116.95 points.
International Forex Market:
The euro/dollar dropped by 1.06% to €/$ 1.0694 over the past week with no indications that the European Central Bank is likely to move away from its monetary easing policy.
Commodities:
Over the week, in line with the stronger dollar, gold prices fell from $1,245.73/ounce last week to $1,242.01/ounce this week.
