During the week ending November 1th, Broad Money (M3) rose by a weekly LBP 457B ($303M) to stand at LBP 211,398B ($140.24B). As such, M3 rose by an annual 1.05% and by 1.59% since December 2017.
In fact, M1 expanded by LBP 565B ($375M) during the week, to stand at LBP 10,979B ($7.28B). The rise in M1 was driven by upticks in both, demand deposits as well as currency in circulation by the respective amounts of LBP 268B ($177.77M) and LBP 297B ($197M), respectively.
Total deposits (excluding demand deposits) declined by LBP 108.5B ($71.97M) over the week on the back of the LBP 218B ($144.61M) drop in Term and saving deposits in LBP and the $73M increase in deposits denominated in foreign currencies.
As such, the rate of broad money dollarization grew from 60.45% to 63.19% this week. As for the overnight interbank rate, data from the central bank showed it steadied at 5% from August 2018 to September 2018.
In the Treasury Bills Auction held on November 01st 2018, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) raised LBP 136B ($90M), through the issuance of bills maturing in 3 months (3M) and 12M, in addition to notes maturing in 5 years (5Y). The highest demand was achieved on the 5Y notes, which grasped 55.14% of total subscriptions, while the 3M and 12M bills accounted for the remaining stakes of 41.16% and 3.7%, respectively. The discount rate on the 3M and 12M bills stood at 4.39% and 5.08%, respectively, while the coupon rate on the notes maturing in 5Y stood at 6.74%.