According to the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), the Lebanese gross public debt reached $76.17B in January 2017, a 6.51% year-on-year (y-o-y) increase and a 1.72% uptick from that of December 2016.
Debt in LBP, accounting for 62.99% of total gross debt, increased by 10.35% y-o-y to reach $47.98B, while foreign currency (FC) debt, grasping the remaining 37.01%, rose by 3.89% annually to stand at $28.19B.
The Net Public Debt, which excludes the public sector deposits at the commercial banks and BdL, stood at $65.33B in January 2017, increasing by a yearly 5.80%.
Commercial banks were the largest subscribers of local currency debt with a share of 43.8% of the total followed by a 41.5% stake for the Central Bank (BDL) and 14.7% for the non-banking system.
Local Currency Debt by Type of Holder
Source: ABL