According to the Central Bank of Lebanon, Lebanon’s Balance of Payments (BoP) registered a deficit of $364.6 million deficit in March 2018 compared to a deficit of $79.7 million registered in the previous month.
In fact, the Net Foreign Assets (NFAs) of commercial banks dropped by $396 million in March 2018 mainly on account of a decline in the banks’ claims on the non-resident financial sector while the NFAs of the Central Bank rose by $30.9 million.
The cumulative BoP deficit amounts to $207.4 million by March 2018 with the NFAs of the Central Bank rising by $1.43 billion and the NFAs of commercial banks falling by $1.64 billion over the same period. Over this period, the decline in the NFAs of commercial banks is also due to the fact that the banks are repatriating some of their foreign assets in order to place them with the Central Bank.
Balance of Payments (BoP) by March of Each Year (in $M)
Source: BDL