According to Lebanon’s commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets increased 2.35% year-to-date (y-t-d) y-o-y and 5.70% annually, from $180.08B by June 2015 to $190.36B by June 2016.
On a year-to-date basis, this was mainly due to the 6.68% and 2.93% respective increases in reserves and claims on the resident private sector to $75.74B and $49.45B, which make up 39.79% and 25.98% of total assets.
Moreover, by June 2016, reserves increased due to a growth of 6.68% in deposits with central bank, while claims on resident private sector increased due to a rise of 4.68% in claims in Lebanese Pounds from $13.65B in December 2015 to $14.29B.
Nevertheless, both claims on public sector and foreign assets observed respective drops of 0.91% and 6.48% by June 2016. The main component behind the decline in foreign assets was claims on non-resident financial sector that dropped 16.99% y-t-d to $9.59B, while the decrease in claims on public sector is attributed to the lower subscription to treasury bills in LBP. The latter dropped by 12.38% since year-start to $17.58B.
As for the liabilities, the rise was caused by the 2.30% rise in resident private sector deposits, which makes up two-thirds of total liabilities, from $116.9B in Dec 2015 to $122.49B in June 2016.
Moreover, the dollarization ratio for private sector loans decreased from 74.83% in December 2015 to 74.44% in June 2016, and the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits slightly fell from 64.88% in December 2015 to 64.84% in June 2016.
Commercial Banks’ Total assets by June (in $B)
Source: BDL