The value of cleared checks decreased by 6.59% during the first two months of the year, revealing lower business spending. In fact, the number of checks cleared by Banque du Liban reached 1.97M worth $11.05B by February 2015 compared to a total of 2.06M checks valued at $11.83B registered a year earlier. Furthermore, the value of checks denominated in Lebanese pounds went down by 1% to reach $2.84B while corporate dollar transactions looked bleaker as the value of checks denominated in foreign currencies dropped by 8.37% to $8.21B compared to $8.96B in the same period last year. As the total value of checks in foreign currencies weighed heavily on the decline of total value of cleared checks, the dollarization rate of checks retreated from 75.71% to 74.27%. As for returned checks that accounted for 2.68% of the total value of checks, they augmented by 27.55% y-o-y to $297M by end of February.
In the month of February alone, the value of cleared checks declined by 7.77% from February 2014 to attain $5.23B. The value of checks denominated in foreign currencies (representing 74.12% of the total) and in LP edged down from February 2014 by respective 9.37% and 2.86% to $3.87B and $1.35B.
Value of Cleared Checks by February
