In the week ending March 21st 2019, Broad Money (M3) declined by a weekly LBP 45B ($30M) to stand at LBP 210,449B ($139.60B), rising 0.04% year-on-year (y-o-y) and declining 0.79% since the start of the year.
In details, M1 contracted by LBP 84B ($55.72M) over the same week, to settle at LBP 9,717B ($6.45B). The decline is attributed to the decrease in currency in circulation by LBP 139B ($92.21M) while demand in deposits rose by LBP 55B ($36.48M).
Over the week, total deposits (excluding demand deposits) grew by LBP 38.10B ($25.27M). This rise was driven by the increase in term and saving deposits denominated in LBP by LBP 48B ($31.84M) while deposits denominated in foreign currencies fell by $7M.
As such, the rate of broad money dollarization marginally increased to 64.26% in the week ending March. 21st 2019, from 64.25% in the week ending March. 14th 2019. In its turn, the average weekly interbank rate stood at 4% in the week of March.24th 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%.