Total consolidated assets of commercial banks hit $182.27B by October, a 3.74% growth since year start, and an expansion of 6.42% year-on-year (y-o-y).
In terms of assets, total reserves, with a weight of 38.37%, grew by 9.47% year-to-date (y-t-d) to $69.94B by the 10th month of the year. Loans to the private sector, which constituted 29.07% of total assets, edged up by 4.11% y-t-d to $52.99B by October. This was due to the respective 7.41% and 2.66% y-t-d increases in private sector loans denominated in local and foreign currencies to $13.51B and $39.49B. Accordingly, the dollarization of private sector loans went from 75.56% by the end of 2014 to 74.51% by October 2015. During the same period, claims on the public sector, constituting 20.55% of total assets, barely ticked up by 0.30% y-t-d to settle at $37.46B in October. As a matter of fact, Eurobonds increased by 3.86% to $16.94B. However, it was partially offset by the 2.40% decline in T-bills to $20.44B, from the beginning of the year.
On the liabilities side, resident and non-resident private sector deposits (81.94% weight in total liabilities) improved by 3.41% since December 2014 to $149.36B by October this year. The dollarization rate of deposits slid from 65.71% in December 2014 to 64.57% in October, as private LBP deposits grew at a pace of 6.85% y-t-d to $52.92B, faster than the 1.62% y-t-d growth to $96.44B of foreign private sector deposits. Looking at just resident private sector deposits (64.95% weight in total liabilities), they also expanded by 3.73% y-t-d to $118.38B, during the same period.
Commercial Banks’ Assets By October
Source: Banque du Liban