In the week ending March 28th 2019, Broad Money (M3) increased by a weekly LBP 180B ($119B) to stand at LBP 210,629B ($139.72B), rising 0.08% year-on-year (y-o-y) and declining 0.71% since the start of the year.
In details, M1 expanded by LBP 231B ($153.23B) over the same week, to settle at LBP 9,948B ($6.60B). The rise is attributed to the decrease in currency in circulation by LBP 58B ($38.47M) while demand deposits rose by LBP 289B ($191.70M).
Over the week, total deposits (excluding demand deposits) dropped by LBP 50.97B ($33.81M). This decline was driven by the decrease in term and saving deposits denominated in LBP by LBP 106B ($70.31M) while deposits denominated in foreign currencies rose by $36M.
As such, the rate of broad money dollarization marginally decreased to 64.23% in the week ending March. 28th 2019, from 64.26% in the week ending March 21st 2019. In its turn, the average weekly interbank rate rose to 5% in the week of March 28th 2019 compared to 4% the previous week.
In the treasury bills (T-Bills) auction held on March 14th 2019, the Ministry of Finance raised LBP 108.66B ($72.07M) through the issuance of bills maturing in 6 months (6M) as well as notes maturing in 2 years (2Y). The highest demand was achieved on bills maturing in 2Y, grasping a share of 96.86% of total subscriptions. Meanwhile, the 6M accounted for the remaining stake of 3.14%. The discount rates on the 6M stood at 5.68% while the coupon rate on the notes maturing in 2Y stood at 7%.