Commercial Banks’ Assets Increased by 4.26% y-t-d to $183.18B by November 2015

Total consolidated assets of commercial banks amounted to $183.18B in the first 11 months of 2015, recording a 4.26% growth since year start, and an expansion of 6.37% year-on-year (y-o-y).

In terms of assets, total reserves, constituting 38.03% of the total, grew by 9.71% year-to-date (y-t-d) to $69.65B by November of 2015. Loans to the private sector, which constituted 29.05% of total assets, edged up by 4.56% y-t-d to $53.22B by November 2015. This was due to the respective 9.28% and 3.03% y-t-d increases in private sector loans denominated in local and foreign currencies to $13.59B and $39.63B. Accordingly, the dollarization of the private sector loans went from 75.56% by the end of 2014 to 74.46% by November. Furthermore, claims on the public sector, constituting 20.71% of total assets, also augmented by 1.57% y-t-d to settle at $37.94B. As a matter of fact, Eurobonds increased by 7.24% y-t-d to $17.49B partly due to the $2.2B Eurobond issuance in February, which was partially offset by the 2.78% decline in T-bills to $20.36B, from the beginning of the year. 

On the liabilities side, resident and non-resident private sector deposits (82.19% weight in total liabilities) improved by 3.73% since December 2014 to $149.81B by November this year. The dollarization rate of deposits slid from 65.71% in December 2014 to 64.57% during the same period, as private LBP deposits grew at a pace of 7.19% y-t-d to $53.08B, faster than the 1.92% y-t-d growth to $96.72B of foreign private sector deposits. Looking at resident private sector deposits (64.88% of  total liabilities alone), they also expanded by 4.13% y-t-d to $118.848B, during the same period.

Commercial Banks’ Assets By November

Commercial Banks’ Assets Increased by 4.26% y-t-d to $183.18B by November 2015

Source: Banque du Liban

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