Total consolidated assets of commercial banks amounted to $181.62B in the first 8 months of the year, a 3.37% growth since year start, and a progression of 6.62% year-on-year (y-o-y).
In terms of assets, total reserves, with a weight of 38.05%, grew by 8.15% year-to-date (y-t-d) to $69.10B by August of this year. Loans to the private sector, which constituted 28.86% of total assets, edged up by 2.96% y-t-d to $52.41B by August. This was due to the respective 6.82% and 1.72% y-t-d increases in private sector loans denominated in local and foreign currencies to $13.29B and $39.12B. Accordingly, the dollarization of private sector loans went from 75.56% by the end of 2014 to 74.65%, over the same period. Furthermore, claims on the public sector, constituting 20.63% of total assets, also augmented by 0.30% y-t-d to settle at $37.46B. As a matter of fact, Eurobonds increased by 3.20% to $16.83B partly due to the $2.2B Eurobond issuance in February, and which was partially offset by the 1.90% decline in T-bills to $20.54B, from the beginning of the year.
On the liabilities side, resident private sector deposits (64.93% weight in total liabilities) progressed by 3.33% since December 2014 to $117.93B by August this year. The dollarization rate of resident and non-resident private sector deposits slid from 65.71% in December 2014 to 64.96% by August, as private LBP deposits grew at a pace of 5.87% y-t-d to $52.43B, faster than the 2.42% y-t-d expansion to $97.20B of foreign private sector deposits.
Commercial Banks’ Assets By August
Source: Banque du Liban