According to Lebanon’s commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets grew 2.04% year-to-date (y-t-d) and 9.19% y-o-y, to $208.48B by July 2017.
The main drivers behind the y-t-d rise were the 3.85% and 3.64% respective increases in reserves (44.71% of total assets) and claims on the resident private sector (25.37% of total assets ) to $93.21B and $52.90B, respectively. In details, by July 2017, reserves escalated due to a rise of 13.23% in cash, while claims on resident private sector increased due to the 9.12% growth in claims in Lebanese Pounds to $17.09B.
However, claims on public sector and foreign assets witnessed respective falls of 0.45% and 4.90% by July 2017. The main reason behind the drop in foreign assets was the claims on non-resident financial sector that dropped 5.66% y-t-d to $10.60B, while the decrease in claims on public sector is justified by the lower subscription to treasury bills in LBP, that plummeted by 8.09% since the beginning of the year to $17.64B.
On the liabilities side, resident private sector deposits, which grasp two-thirds of total liabilities, grew 3.97% to $133.63B in July 2017.
The dollarization ratio for private sector deposits slightly rose from 65.82% in December 2016 to 66.88% in July 2017.
Commercial Banks’ Total assets by July (in Billions $)
Source: BDL