In the week ending March 14th 2019, Broad Money (M3) rose by a weekly LBP 245B ($162.52M) to stand at LBP 210,495B ($139.63B), rising 0.11% year-on-year (y-o-y) and declining 0.77% since the start of the year.In details, M1 contracted by LBP 260B ($172M) over the same week, to settle at LBP 9,800B ($6.50B). The decline is attributed to the decrease demand in deposits and currency in circulation by LBP 100B ($66M) and LBP 160B ($106M), respectively.
Over the week, total deposits (excluding demand deposits) grew by LBP 504.76B ($334.83M). This rise was driven by the increase in term and saving deposits denominated in LBP and deposits denominated in foreign currencies by LBP 115B ($76.29M) and $259M, respectively.
As such, the rate of broad money dollarization marginally increased to 64.25% in the week ending March. 14th 2019, from 64.14% in the week ending March. 7th 2019. In its turn, the average weekly interbank rate increased to 5% in the week of March.17th 2019 compared to 4% the previous week.
In the treasury bills (T-Bills) auction held on March 7th 2019, the Ministry of Finance raised LBP 261.03B ($173.15M) through the issuance of bills maturing in 3 months (3M) as well as notes maturing in 1 Year (1Y) and in 5 years (5Y). The highest demand was achieved on bills maturing in 5Y, grasping a share of 58.24% of total subscriptions. Meanwhile, the 3M and 1Y bills accounted for the remaining stakes of 1.16% and 40.60%, respectively. The discount rates on the 3M and 1(Y) bills stood at 5.23% and 6.10%, respectively while the coupon rate on the notes maturing in 5Y stood at 8%.