During the week ending on Apr. 5, 2018, Broad Money (M3) contracted by a weekly LBP 166B ($110M) to reach LBP 210,065B ($139B). On a yearly basis, M3 added 3.65% and rose by 0.95% since the start of the year.
M1 also shrank by LBP 42B ($28M) to LBP 10,839B ($7B) over the week. The decline is attributed to a decrease of LBP 213B ($141M) in demand deposits and a LBP 171B ($113M) increase in currency circulation.
Total deposits (excluding demand deposits) declined by LBP 125B ($83M) over the same week, on the back of a weekly drop of LBP 250B ($166M) in Term and savings deposits denominated in local currency (LBP) and an $83M rise in deposits denominated in foreign currencies.
In turn, the broad money dollarization rate rose from 61.62% by March 29th to 61.73% by April 5, 2018. According to the Central Bank, the overnight interbank rate steadied at 4% in January 2018.
In the Treasury Bills Auction held on May 3, 2018, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) raised LBP 481B ($319M), through the issuance of bills maturing in 3 months (3M) and 12 months (12M), and notes maturing in 60 months (60M). The highest demand was achieved on the 12M bills, which accounted for 42.55% of total subscriptions, while the 3M bills and 60M notes accounted for the remaining shares of 15.78% and 1.67%, respectively.
The discount rates on the 3M and 12M bills stood at 4.39% and 5.08%, respectively, while the coupon rate on the notes maturing in 60M stood at 6.74%. New subscriptions exceeded existing maturities by LBP 361B ($239M).