The value of cleared checks decreased by 8.21% during the first seven months of the year, illustrating lower business spending. In fact, the number of checks cleared by Banque du Liban amounted to 7.18M worth $42.69B by July 2015, compared to a total of 7.43M checks valued at $46.50B registered a year earlier.
The decline in the total value of checks in foreign currencies put a large toll on the fall of total value of cleared checks, as the former decreased yearly by 11.62% to $31.88B compared to $36.07B by July 2014. In contrast, the value of checks denominated in Lebanese Pounds increased by 2.97% to reach $10.81B by July compared to a lower level of $10.43B last year. In turn, the dollarization rate of checks retreated from 77.45% to 74.68%. As for returned checks, they constituted 2.15% of total value of checks, up from the 1.83% recorded the previous year.
In the month of July alone, the value of cleared checks declined by 4.29% from July 2014 to realize $5.46B. The value of checks denominated in foreign currencies (representing 72.84% of the total) went down by 15.24% to $3.98B in July, while the value of checks in LBP increased by 2.01% to $1.48B, over the same period.
Value of Cleared Checks by July ($M)
Source: ABL