The total number of checks, cleared by Banque du Liban, showed a drop of 3.60% yearly, to 4.02M in the first four months of the year, compared to a higher level of 4.17M a year earlier. Furthermore, the cumulative value of these checks, cleared by Banque du Liban, declined by 8.26% year-on-year (y-o-y) to recording $22.86B, with April 2014 value recorded at $24.91B. This is on the back of the declining value of the cleared checks in foreign currency offsetting the rise in the value checks denominated in local currency.
In details, the value of cleared checks denominated in Lebanese Pound (LP) grew by 5.65% annually to $6.17B by April, in comparison to the $5.84B registered in April 2014. However, that of foreign currencies plunged by 12.52% y-o-y to $16.69B, significantly lower than the $19.07B disclosed last year. Consequently, the dollarization rate, in terms of value, went down from 76.56% in April 2014, to 73.01% in April 2015.
The value of returned checks, accounting for 2.33% of the total checks’ value, increased yearly by 13.45% to $533M, over the same period.
In April alone, the total value of cleared checks dropped by 17.19% to $5.71B. Cleared checks denominated in foreign currencies decreased by 23.66% y-o-y to $4.16B, while those denominated in local currencies showed a 7.15% improvement from April 2014 to $1.55B.
Value of Cleared Checks by April (in $M)
Source: ABL