The value of cleared checks fell 8.51% during the first 9 months of the year, which might be due to lower business spending, and the fact that people are possibly substituting payments via checks with various payment cards and e-payments. In fact, the number of checks cleared by Banque du Liban amounted to 9.26M worth $54.31B by September 2015, compared to a larger number of 9.68M checks valued at $59.36B recorded a year earlier.
In details, the value of cleared checks denominated in Lebanese Pound (LP) grew by 3.87% annually to $13.99B by September, in comparison to the $13.47B registered by September 2014. However, that of foreign currencies plunged by 12.14% y-o-y to $40.32B, significantly lower than the $45.89B disclosed last year. Consequently, the dollarization rate, in terms of value, went down from 77.30% to 74.23% over the same period.
As for returned checks, they constituted 2.10% of total value of checks by September this year, up from the 1.91% recorded the previous year.
In September alone, the total value of cleared checks dropped by 9.95% to $5.74B. The value of cleared checks denominated in foreign currencies decreased by 14.43% y-o-y to $4.15B, while those denominated in local currencies showed a 4.36% improvement from September 2014 to $1.59B in September 2015.
Value of Cleared Checks by September (in $M)
Source: ABL