tab Foreign Exchange Markets
Despite quiet and calm reigning over the local foreign exchange market,the Lebanese pound found itself slightly worse-off against the dollar in interbank trading,falling to LP1,512-13 from LP1,509-10 a week before. Given the full onset of summer now,the market is likely to remain featureless but stable for several weeks.The parliamentary elections,scheduled for end-August -beginning September,have helped slow things up,with the workings of government basically on hold until after their conclusion.
tab Money MarketTB subscriptions fell markedly at the June 29 auction,shedding 38.5%to land at LP342bn ($226.9m)with maturing bills losing 30.02%to LP282bn ($187.1m),thus causing the surplus of subscriptions over maturities to reach one of its lowest levels at LP60bn ($39.8m). No external demand was registered on TBs,with local banks remaining almost exclusively the sole buyers.Banks have been rolling-over maturing bills,with their interest strongly focused on longer-term TBs as the 24-M TB’s share of subscriptions rose to 72% from 66%a week before and that of the 12-M TB gaining 3 percentage points to 12%. There was no interest in the BDL’s LP Certificates of Deposit this week,a common occurrence since the removal of all allocation limits on competitive TB bids at the end of April.
