Commercial Bank’s Assets Increased by 2.11% y-t-d to $179.40 B in April

Total consolidated assets of commercial banks registered $179.40B by April, a 2.11% growth since year start, and a progression of 6.97% year-on-year (y-o-y).

In terms of assets, total reserves, with a weight of 36.44%, added 2.31% year-to-date (y-t-d) to $65.37B by the fourth month of the year. Loans to the private sector, which grasped 28.67% of total assets, went up by 1.03% y-t-d to $51.43B by March. Notably, private sector loans denominated in both local and foreign currencies increased by 2.52% y-t-d and 0.55% y-t-d to $12.75B and $38.68B, respectively, over the same period. Since loans in local currency grew at a faster pace than those denominated in foreign ones, the dollarization of private sector loans slightly dropped from 75.56% in December 2014 to 75.21% in April. During the same period, claims on the public sector, constituting 21.46% of total assets, also increased by 3.06% y-t-d to record $38.50B by April. In details, T-bills in local currency dipped by 1.34% to $20.66B while Eurobonds improved by 8.83% y-t-d to $17.75B, by April. The $2.5B Eurobond issuance in February has contributed to the surge in foreign currency claims on the public sector.

On the liabilities side, resident private sector deposits (64.80% weight in total liabilities) progressed by 1.86% since year start to $116.25B by April. The dollarization rate of resident and non-resident private sector deposits slid from 65.71% in December 2014 to 65.30% by April as private LBP deposits grew at a pace of 3.36% y-t-d to $51.19B, faster than the 1.48% y-t-d growth to $96.31B of foreign private sector deposits. Worth mentioning, as the private sector deposits in Dollars increased, the Dollar pegged Lebanese Pound declined from a mid-price of LP/Dollar 1,510 to LP/Dollar 1,507, by End-May.

Commercial Banks’ Assets By April

Commercial Bank’s Assets Increased by 2.11% y-t-d to $179.40 B in April

Source: Banque du Liban

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