The BoP recorded a large surplus of $1.79B in August alone and thus turned the BoP of the year into positive territories with a surplus of $366.2M compared to a deficit of $1.65B by August 2015 and $1.42B by July 2016. Behind this turnaround is the swap operation conducted by BDL with commercial banks. The operation consisted of BDL buying back T-bills denominated in Lira at a premium discount against local banks’ subscription to financial instruments denominated in dollars. Hence, the end result is an increase of BDL’s Net Foreign Assets (NFA) by $3.96B increase in the month of august and a drop of $2.17B in commercial banks’ NFAs.
The BDL managed to boost its foreign currency reserves by an approximate of $3B and its foreign securities portfolio by $1B by end of August 2016.
Balance of Payments (BoP) by August (in Millions $)
Source: BDL