US Economic Data Dragged The Dollar Lower This Week
Lebanese Forex Market
The Lebanese Pound (LP) steadied this 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 reached $38.9B by the end of February 2019.
The dollarization ratio of private sector deposits rose from 68.44% in January 2018 to 70.87% in January 2019.
The Euro appreciated against the dollar-pegged LP, ending the week at €/LBP 1,704.15, compared to last week’s €/LBP 1,688.19.
Over the week, the Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) of the LBP fell by 0.43% to 117.85 points.
International Forex Market
The Euro recovered from last week’s fall that was caused by the ECB declaration regarding the euro-area growth and delaying interest rate hikes.
In details, the latest US job growth reports showed that non-farm payrolls increased by just 20,000, versus 180,000 expected; this was considered as the worst month for job creation since 2017. In parallel, the weekly US jobless claimed a total of 229,000 Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits versus 225,000 expected. In addition to that, US Consumer price index rose 0.2% in February. All this, coupled with optimism after the British parliament’s refusal to leave the EU without agreement boosted the Euro this week.
Hence, the currency pair went from last week’s €/USD 1.1199 to €/USD 1.1304.
Commodities
Accordingly, gold prices rose over the week to $1,304.00/ounce by March 15, compared to last week’s $1,292.6/ounce.
