Value of Cleared Checks Ends 2016 with a 5.54% y-o-y Contraction

According to the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), the value of cleared checks declined by 5.54% year on year (y-o-y) by December 2016, whereby the number of checks cleared reached 12.32M worth $68.04B, compared to 12.51M checks worth $72.03B  in the same period of 2015.

The number and value of checks cleared in Lebanese Pounds (LBP) respectively rose by 4.09% and 5.23% y-o-y to 4.29M and $19.9B by Dec.2016; However, the number and value of cleared checks in foreign currency respectively fell by  yearly 4.28% and 9.37% to 8.03M and $48.14B by December 2016.

As such, the dollarization rate of cleared checks declined in volume and value terms from 67.09% and 73.75% by Dec.2015 to 65.21% and 70.76%, respectively in the same period of 2016. 

It is worthy to mention that the value of returned checks registered a 4.5% uptick to $1.6M over the period while their volume dropped by an annual 2.97% to 227,766.

On a monthly basis, the number and value of cleared checks in December 2016 fell by yearly 6.25% and 3.58% to 1.03M and $5.76B. In details, the volume and value of December’s cleared LBP-checks respectively rose by 2.54% and 9.95% to reach 376,518 and $1.88B, whereas the volume and value of foreign currency checks fell by 10.69% and 9.01% to 648,908 and $3.88B, respectively.

Value of Cleared Checks by December ($M)

Value of Cleared Checks Ends 2016 with a 5.54% y-o-y Contraction

Source: Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL)

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